Encore
by Konamino
Summary: Airashi Megumi was not only spoiled rotten to the core, but also a despicable bully. A brat. Nobody really understood how such a miserable villain ended up in class 1-A. Most importantly: She doesn't exist in the original series. When our heroine suddenly finds herself stuck in Megumi's body after a particularly rough death experience, there's only one path left for her to take.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **Do you really think I would be writing fanfiction if I owned this manga? All characters and events in _Boku no Hero Academia _belong to Horikoshi Kouhei.

**Warning: Bad language and bloody imagery ahead.**

* * *

_** \- Prologue - **_

**Afterlife**

* * *

Reincarnation had been the very last thing on her mind, especially when everything around her was crumbling down in flames.

During her final moments, she could have waxed some poetic bullshit about the meaning of life and the inevitability of death. Give herself a nice speech for all the things she had accomplished so far, list off all the people who loved and needed her, maybe resign herself to her demise with a cynical scoff without much fuss until the p_(ain oh my fucking god it buRNS) _eventually stopped.

But come on, who was she kidding? Only heroes get that kind of ending.

She was a pathetic fucking nobody until the very end.

The burning hellscape around her and the crushing weight piercing through her right side made her sick to her sto_(mach oh god ohgod my stomach my lungs __**ican'tbreatheithurtsitHURTS**__-). _She could still feel the tremors shaking the building and the distant screams ringing in her ears made a whole new kind of panic flare inside her chest. They were all running away, running away and leaving her to _die- (no please come back please please it hurts so much-) _and she could barely breathe let alone scream for help.

With each painstaking breath she took, a torturous stabbing sensation in her gut would keep her from gasping for more air. She could feel, smell, _taste _the blood filling into her lungs and suffocating her from the inside. Everything below her abdomen felt completely numb and she couldn't bring herself to look because she knew all too well _(the debris crushing her legs, the iron rod impaled through her stomach, her intestines spilling out from-) _that the view would not be pleasant.

The static noise clouding her mind _(thick warm liquid dribbled out of her ruptured eardrums, she strained to hear the far away voices, __**pleasehelpme**__-)_ started to intensify, the splitting headache pounding away at her brain only further provoking the hysteria bubbling up within her. She could feel the tears soaking her face, dripping all the way on the cold floor she helplessly laid on.

_(I don't want to die like this.)_

What was the point of hoping for a rescue when she knew that none would come? She knew that heroes existed out there and that people like her were the ones they saved. But there was only so much they could do; she was being crushed alive. Even if firefighters and police were able to get her out, there was no future for her with a broken spine and damaged hearing. The first aid doctors would surely do their best to keep her alive, but at what cost?

She didn't have the energy to cry anymore, blinking away the dust from her eyes as she focused on the blood beneath her turning dry and sticky. It had been warm just minutes ago.

_(What would a superhero have done?)_

Heroes with superpowers: a dream she had foolishly clung onto even as an adult. The only heroes she had ever known came in the form of firefighters, police officers, army soldiers, doctors, nurses, any person who was willing to risk their life for another life.

Then again, she had always liked to think that the term "hero" was subjective to the context it was used in. An organ donor was a hero, so was a teacher protecting and supporting a bullied student. Suicide hotline workers, celebrities idolized by many, volunteers at refugee shelters: maybe she was just a hopeless romantic who liked to see the good in people. But imagining that such heroes still existed in the world continued to restore her faith in humanity, no matter how many atrocities she saw on the news.

To think that she'd just be part of another one of those atrocities was _pathetic._

Her entire life, one failure after another: she was a hopeless embarrassment. She had ended up as a boring office worker, doing the same repetitive work day in and day out. Even with all the hard work she had invested into her studies, this was the best job she could get.

_(Just once in my life, I wish I could have been useful.)_

She had always been the one who received help, but had she ever been able to pay back the kindness of the people around her?

Here she was, in unbearable pain, bleeding out and _dying. _Without even a goodbye.

It hurt. It really did. In more ways than one.

* * *

_(It feels like I've been dreaming for a long time.)_

Airashi Megumi was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and spoiled rotten by family.

It was no wonder she turned out to be an utter brat.

When the time came to properly raise their child and discipline her the way parents should, she was instead handed over to a host of private tutors, housemaids and manservants... all of whom she was successful in terrorizing with her inflated ego and arrogant behaviour.

She would refuse to do any work, bringing her tutor to the verge of tears when something did not go her way, her words tearing into the poor woman with all the venom of a viper. Her snide comments to the housemaids often had them quitting their jobs in seething anger or bawling secretly in the washrooms.

And no one had the power nor the will to refuse her demands, for she was the precious eldest daughter of the Airashi household. No matter have intolerably annoying she got, they had no power to make her stop. She was as ruthless to her siblings as she was to any other servant, and it was no secret that even they preferred to avoid her.

Megumi was just absolutely horrid. A terrible menace. An insufferable bully.

But there was one person she always made sure to act cute around: and that was the second greatest hero Endeavour's son, Todoroki Shouto.

_(Todoroki Shouto? But that's... I don't understand.)_

As expected of wealthy people, they have their own circle of friends and acquaintances. Gatherings and banquets aren't uncommon and rather effective at establishing new connections benefical to all parties. It was precisely in one of such functions that Megumi had the pleasure of meeting the love of her life, and Shouto had the displeasure of encountering the bane of his existence.

She would cling to him, stick to him as if she were just another extension of his arm. She would talk his ear off with useless chitchat and pull him away if any girl their age interacted with him in any way. He hated it. He hated her. Every time he saw her, he wanted to shove her off. He didn't want her hands on him, didn't want to be anywhere near her. But his father had decreed that he was not to anger the prissy little princess no matter how annoying she got.

That's how years went by. Eventual conquest was the only thing occupying Megumi's mind- and she always got what she wanted. No matter the cost.

On her 14th Birthday, she announced to her parents that she wanted to attend UA High, the top Hero Academy in Japan. And of course, that's what she got.

(She had never been interested in heroes. She had never even thought about them, much less remembered any of their names. But where Shouto went, she followed.)

She was successful in passing the entrance exam- much to Shouto's displeasure.

_(How can that be, I don't remember this-)_

She had done it. She could finally attend the same class as her beloved Shouto, the infamous 1-A as the 4th recommended student of their grade that year. She did not remember much about her entrance exam partner, pointy teeth and a lizard suit on the forefront of her mind, but they would surely not be interacting much since the girl had been put into the clearly inferior 1-B.

None of her new classmates really knew how to get along with her. Arrogant, demanding and entitled: traits nobody would ever imagine nor expect a hero to have. Wherever Shouto went she would go. Her straightforward advances and his cold rejections became a common occurrence, an established dynamic within 1A.

Neither Tenya nor Momo could interfere with Megumi's affairs, for they had met her at gatherings with their parents before and had unfortunately gotten to know her difficult nature in close quarters. That of course did not mean that they didn't try- although it often resulted in a barrage of unpleasant verbal insults in addition to an upturnt nose.

_(Who- Who is this girl, I don't remember her being in the-)_

And then it happened. The turning point. The moment of truth.

Airashi Megumi was awful. Vindictive. Vain and fickle.

Why did she even exist?

_(She doesn't belong, she's not a character here, someone like her was never in the series-)_

Maybe she would never get to know.

_(Why does she exist here?! Why am I seeing this-)_

When she pushed away that stupid green haired nerd, it was as if her body had moved on its own. And just as soon as she shoved him away, the Nomu's blow made contact.

She heard the next thought echoing trough her head, Megumi's voice mixing with her own. Dry amusement drowned out the fear in her very soul as she made contact with the seafoam green of her eyes.

"_**Ironically, they appeared before us during our rescue training."**_

The Megumi in her dreams had always had a sneer or a frown on her face. But now, as she stood before her mirror image, that rueful smile and those sad green eyes made her feel like the dreams hadn't shown her everything about the cruel little girl.

"_**You must think I'm the absolute worst. I'm a mean bitch aren't I?" **_A scoff and a chuckle reverberating through the darkness. _**"It would be better if I never existed."**_

A cold hand pressed against her cheek. She looked up at Megumi. At those sad, but incredibly beautiful eyes. Her expression twisted into something terrifying. _**"I wish I was never born. I have nothing to live for."**_

Those same hands grabbed her by the throat, pushing her further into the darkness. She struggled, but Megumi's delicate arms were deceptively strong.

"_**But you do. You can do what I can't. I want to rest here... for eternity..."**_

Megumi let go. She felt herself falling backwards into the abyss. A soundless scream tore through her throat as she desperately clawed at the emptiness.

"_**Please live a good life in my stead."**_

* * *

And when she opened her eyes again, the feeling that something had gone extremely wrong hit her with all the force of a bulldozer.

White ceiling, white walls, the smell of disinfectant- she was in a hospital.

But by all means, she shouldn't have been alive.

The beeping of the heart monitor beside her went haywire when she pulled off the needles clinging to her wrists. Stumbling and tripping over her own feet, she grabbed a hold of the patient information sheet tucked into a folder on the foot of her bed.

_PATIENT INFORMATION_

_LAST NAME; __Airashi_

_FIRST NAME; __Megumi_

That was... not her name?

A quick glance at her reflection in the window revealed wavy, pale blonde hair and striking seafoam green eyes. She let the folder in her grasp fall on the ground, pinching her face and pulling at her hair hoping to wake up from this bad, very bad dream. This utter _nightmare._

The door inched open, the young nurse snapping to attention at the sight of her awake.

"Oh my! It seems you woke up. There there Megumi-chan, no need for panic. I'll call the doctor for you real quick!"

_Oh no. No no no. God. No._

_What the actual fuck is going on._

* * *

**A/N: **

**Hey! Thanks for reading this weird prompt of mine. I hope you enjoyed it.**

**I've read too many Isekai novels recently and this idea just popped up in my mind.**

**What would you do if you were reincarnated into a really spoiled character? And what really happened to them for their personality to turn so foul? These questions have plagued me a lot. At first I intended this OC to wake up in a canon character's body one day, but then my love of OC-Inserts interfered with everything so here you have this confusing mess.**

**I'm not completely sure if I will be continuing this story (because I tend to write in free-form without planning and fellow writers will know how that tends to turn out). But I really wanted to share this anyway, maybe to test the waters. I don't usually publish anything I write, since I'm hella bad at regular updates, so let's say this is a one-shot for now.**

**This was a great way to get over my writer's block and I don't regret anything! **


	2. Confusion

**Disclaimer: **I don't own My Hero Academia, everything belongs to Horikoshi Kouhei.

**Warning: Language. **

* * *

_**\- Chapter 1 -**_

**Confusion**

* * *

Colby Flores had led a relatively modest life.

But that wasn't the only thing setting her apart from Airashi Megumi.

There were no such things as 'quirks' in her world.

(In _our _world.)

Anyone who claimed to be any sort of hero as a profession would get shipped to the nearest mental clinic, no questions asked. Superpowers were a fantasy they could never achieve: comic books, movies and manga were the closest they could ever get to enjoying such dreams.

Colby had adored the notion of superpowers ever since she was a child. As she grew up, she gradually did let go of the hope of ever getting any sort of powers. Reality was a bitter pill to swallow. However, that did not deter her from watching and absolutely loving anime and superhero movies.

Funny enough, My Hero Academia hadn't even been her favourite anime.

She would've preferred One Punch Man over MHA any day, because she had fallen in love with Saitama's utter deadpan boredom and the confused cyborg child that was Genos. She enjoyed both Marvel and DC, though her favourite hero Spiderman tended to make her biased toward Marvel.

Colby Flores might have been a useless nobody, but at least she had hobbies that could distract her from the depressing reality of life.

Looking back, it was rather obvious why she had fallen out of contact with most of her friends once she graduated from university. Normal adults didn't bother themselves with such childish pastimes. They had a job, a family, and to put it bluntly: a social life. Colby was a recluse who preferred spending time alone even in her adult years.

She had unfortunately not grown out of her awkwardness, and past embarrassing memories riddled her with anxiety. It was pathetic how a voice in her head always whispered not to make a fool of herself whenever her job required her to interact with coworkers and clientele.

But that was the beauty of superhero fiction: they gave her the courage to keep moving forward. To keep her head high and look at the person she was speaking to straight in the eyes without stuttering. They taught her to never give up, drowning out the whispers that told her she couldn't do it; they gave her hope that things could only get better.

But things didn't get better.

Why would "things get better" for a person like her? Nothing went right!

In fact, they went backwards. As if there was a black cloud hanging above her, sucking up all her hopes and dreams until there was only an empty wasteland of hopeless self-pity.

_(I must be going insane. That's the only rational explanation!)_

She was currently sitting in a hospital room- in some fictional place in Japan. In a body that _definitely _did _not _belong to her. Having an existential crisis.

Another desperate keening noise escaped her as she slumped forward with her head in her hands, elbows braced on her knees as she stared at the floor tiles as if they held the secrets to the universe.

It had been about 10 minutes since the nurse had left to get the doctor, and during that time Colby- now Megumi- had taken to pacing around in her room like a madwoman. She would pace, sit down, then start pacing again only to run out of breath and sit down again. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. It felt like she was having a nasty fever dream. A real bad hallucination.

She just wanted to _go home _and _sleep. _But she wasn't stupid nor delusional.

The bandages wrapped firmly around her head and abdomen were a thorough reality check.

This was _not _a dream.

The original Megumi's memories coincided with her current situation. As if the moment her mind was transferred to Megumi's body, the original's memories mixed with her own. Her mindscape had felt like an attic stuffed to the brim with random information, until she had made the effort of sorting and seperating Megumi's memories from Colby's.

She was Colby- but she was also Megumi. It was an alien feeling. She felt like an in-between existence that was both Colby and Megumi: but also something that was _neither _of those two.

The League of Villains had attacked 1-A during their rescue training in the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. From what she could understand with the help of the original Megumi's memories, Megumi had been stuck with Asui, Midoriya and Mineta in the flood zone. And she had been...

...an absolute _nuisance._

Heat rapidly climbed up her neck and cheeks as a massive cringe attack wracked her body. She wanted to drill a whole in the ground and bury herself in it. Oh god, Megumi's memories were a massive embarrassment.

Not only had she complained the whole time they were stuck on that sinking ship, she had also been absolutely useless. Because she didn't want to _get her nails dirty and ruin her makeup. _Gosh.

_(Fucking bitch left me to deal with her shit. I should have just died.)_

But if she really had been as selfish and vain as her memories suggested, what had made her sacrifice herself for Midoriya? Someone who had been complaining about getting her appearance ruined just minutes prior couldn't possibly have such a huge change of heart in such a short time.

Moreover, the Megumi she had interacted with didn't resemble the bratty annoyance in those memories at all.

Something wasn't adding up.

Before she could dwell on it any further, the door once again creaked open. The doctor came in along with the nurse who had previously greeted Megumi in the middle of her freak-out session.

She was instructed to sit straight as he examined her injuries. One of the reasons she had always disliked hospitals was that doctors tended to prod at her as they liked, and she absolutely hated being touched all over. She had never been a huge fan of body contact in general, avoiding hugs and kisses whenever she could as if there were going to be giving her the plague. But the doctor's hands were unusually soothing as they hovered over her scrapes and bruises. '_Oh, that must be his quirk.'_ How stupid of her not to see the faint glow they gave off. What a nice quirk...

He replaced her bandages with new ones as he briefed her on what had been happening ever since the USJ Incident took place.

"The media has been utterly chaotic ever since you guys were attacked- they even tried to get access to our hospital for an interview with Eraserhead!" He huffed, shaking his head in disapproval. "Won't even let a sick man rest for goodness' sake. He was in horrible shape when they brought him in on thursday. Classes were cancelled for hero course students the day after. Those with minor injuries were treated in UA by Recovery Girl, but you had a nasty concussion and some busted ribs. Thankfully you seem to have healed just fine! Although you shouldn't have pulled out your IV drip so forcefully-"

Healed? Didn't he say they were attacked _on thursday? _Today was saturday, so... no, no matter how she looked at it, it wasn't physically possible to just _heal _broken bones in 2 days. A regeneration quirk-?

The confusion must have shown on her face because the doctor did a double take. "Ah- haha! I understand your concerns Airashi-chan, under normal circumstances your injuries wouldn't warrant a hospital visit. Heroes deal with worse after all!"

The cheerful exclamation of that statement made chills run down her spine.

"However, it seems your body had an extreme lack of energy in contrast to the magnitude of your injuries, same as Eraserhead. Recovery Girl didn't want to risk putting your lives in danger by using her quirk on you in that state." Say what? "She waited until both of you were fully rested. Visited in the afternoon to give you a good healing. You might have gotten to meet her if you woke up three hours earlier actually! Seeing her in person was such an honor-!"

And then he started to unabashedly praise Recovery Girl with the excitement and adoration only a true fanboy could muster. The nurse looked quite embarrassed on his behalf, but held her head down and continued scribbling down on her clipboard.

Megumi bit her lip, fiddling with her fingers. She had been meaning to ask a question since before, but... "Did anyone come to visit while I was here?"

The doctor stopped his rant, falling eerily silent. The nurse had a pitying expression on her face. Megumi's heart dropped- it was clear what that reaction meant. It's not like she had been expecting anything. Who would even care if someone like her died? Chuckling nervously, she picked at the bandages on her head holding back her fringe. "A-actually um, nevermind. Any word from my parents?"

"...Yes! We've kept your family informed of your recovery. It seems they are too busy to visit... but they've been waiting for you to wake up. We have been told they'll be sending over a chauffeur to pick you up tomorrow."

"I see..."

She had known that Megumi's parents weren't the most affectionate, but she still couldn't help but feel a dreadful sense of disappointment at the thought that they wouldn't even spare time to visit their hurt daughter at the hospital. Really, that was just too pitiful.

No friends, no family- it just made it all the more obvious to her that Megumi virtually had _nothing _aside from her title as the eldest daughter of a rich family.

Well, technically she _wasn't _Megumi anymore. So she could do whatever the hell she wanted. Fuck everyone else.

"Doctor, may I see Aizawa-sensei?"

"Now is... now may not be the right time. You woke up roughly around the same time he did, but right now he's having a chat with the detectives about the Incident." Sighing, he muttered under his breath. "_Not that he's in any condition to be straining himself. Why must these pro heroes be so stupid and reckless and..."_

Piercing green eyes blinked up at him unfazed. "That's perfect. I'm a witness. They were going to interview me anyway, and I can see Aizawa-sensei."

She wouldn't let such an opportunity slip by.

* * *

She was escorted past the intensive care unit where Aizawa had previously resided in. They had moved him to a different room, both for the sake of opening up more space for incoming patients and also to give Aizawa the privacy he wanted during his stay at the hospital.

Needless to say, she could feel his burning stare drilling holes into her even with the bandages covering 90% of his body. _'Guess he feels lively enough to dish out a scolding.' _Admittedly, it hadn't been the smartest move of Megumi to throw herself right into that 8 ton Nomu fist. All Might would have arrived and saved the day anyway, even without her pulling that stunt.

It made her question whether Megumi really had the intention of saving Midoriya, or if she had purposefully wanted to get maimed by that hybrid-disaster monster for whatever reason.

Currently she was seated in front of detective Tsukauchi while Aizawa watched them from his hospital bed with an aura that promised her they'd be having a long talk later. And that was exactly what she had come here for anyway so fine by her.

She found detective Tsukauchi perfectly pleasant. He went straight to the point with his many questions. "And how much of a threat would you say were the villains you encountered in the flood zone? Did you happen to see any with abnormal mutations and unnatural aggressive tendencies resembling that of the Nomu?"

"Most villains we encountered weren't trained properly with quirks they couldn't control to their fullest extent. Else I'm aware that we wouldn't have been able to escape so easily. Some of them were flying above us though, and they didn't resemble anything human... Just a brain and some eyeballs attached to their heads..." Even thinking about it made her queasy. "Sorry, I can't be sure, I couldn't see them very well from where I was standing."

"No, that's fine. We've gotten similar testimonies." He shuffled through his notebook, writing something here and there while Megumi shifted awkwardly in her seat. It had been around half an hour since her interrogation had started and her teacher's patience seemed to be running out. Tsukauchi eventually shot her a radiant smile and made a move to stand up, holding out a hand for her to shake. "Thank you very much for your cooperation today Airashi-san. I wish you a swift recovery."

"Thanks."

He tilted his hat towards the other person in the room. "Aizawa-san."

The bandaged man replied with a grunt and a lift of his left leg, one of the only limbs unscathed from the incident. Tsukauchi sighed and waved them farewell as he exited through the door.

Megumi dragged her seat next to Aizawa's bed and clasped her hands together firmly. _'I can't believe I'm doing this.'_ Aizawa Shouta, a _fictional character, _existing before her in all his sleep-deprived glory. Was this heaven or hell? Then again, she could hardly call it heaven, seeing as Megumi had fucked up majorly before tossing all this bullshit onto her. As much as she wanted to run her hands through that messy black hair and fangirl all over him, she didn't fancy getting smacked into the next century.

Aizawa had sensed something wrong with his student as soon as she had entered his room in the middle of Tsukauchi's questioning, the doctor behind her frantically telling her to slow down. He would have usually chalked it up to her usual antics, but the vibe she gave off was unlike anything he'd felt from her before. His students were a pain in the ass- some more than others- and having Megumi willingly come to him by herself expecting a stern lecture was unusual to say the least. She tended to avoid him whenever she knew she would be getting scolded for something she had done.

He had determined long ago that Megumi lacked not only nervosity and hesitation, but also any notion of shame and modesty. He found it hard to believe that she had now approached him on her own accord. Silent brooding didn't fit her. There could only be one reason she was acting this way, and it made his blood boil thinking one of his students would actually consider something as cowardly as that after a single encounter with villains.

"I'm disappointed in you."

Megumi drooped in her seat. So that was the first thing he decided to say after that long bout of silence. Aizawa's intense anger made her dig her nails into her palms in order to stop the wetness building up behind her eyes. She had never been good at dealing with angry people. _'But it was Megumi who... why do I have to sit through this when I didn't even...'_

"What you did back there was absolutely idiotic. I don't even know what to say. Villains won't have mercy for you, no matter how rich or privileged you may be. Did you expect praise for the reckless way you behaved during that incident? You can't save people if you're _dead. _Get that through your thick skull."

He was right... He was right, but...!

"And no matter how scared you were, that's the daily life of a hero. You weren't accepted into this school just so you could quit when the first encounter with a villain lands you in the hospital-"

What? "No!"

Aizawa stared at her, waiting for an elaboration. Why else had she shouldered her way into his room so urgently with that troubled expression of hers?

"It's true that I was scared and that I did something really stupid. I have no excuse for that." He could feel his brows climbing all the way up his hairline when she stood up and bowed low in a perfect 45 degree angle. "I am so sorry, it won't happen again."

Was he dreaming? The Nomu really must have done a number on him.

She eased back out of the bow, looking at him with such sincerity that he wouldn't have had the heart to look away even he tried. "I don't plan on quitting. It never even crossed my mind."

That was a lie. It _had _crossed her mind. Why did she have to subject herself to possible death and mutilation by pursuing a profession in heroics? The original Megumi must have been insane to only have Todoroki in her mind, to the extent she didn't even consider her own well-being. Or had she known all along that this was going to happen?

She remembered those sad eyes again, looking at her pleadingly.

"_Please live a good life in my stead."_

Damn. Stupid Megumi, why did she have to... she couldn't hold in the flood of emotions inside of her anymore.

Slumping back in her seat the blonde hung her head in defeat, hands bunching up the fabric in her lap.

Dumbstruck horror gradually started blooming on Aizawa's bandaged face as her shoulders started trembling with snivels and hiccups.

"I d-didn't... I _didn't want to die either!"_

She'd been so scared. Terrified. Everyone was leaving her, running away without a single glance backwards, focused on their own survival. She was stuck and helpless and wanted to scream for help, but her voice wasn't working. She had been so _alone. _Even with nothing but dust, fire and debris littering her vision, she had continued to hope for a rescue. The crushing weight on top of her, her bones and organs creaking in protest, pain so unimaginably unbearable that it made her sick to her stomach just _thinking _about it-

It had hurt. It still did.

The bandaged arm awkwardly patting her on the head made her sob even harder.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Great to see you all again! Thanks for your lovely reviews, they really fired me up. **

**I'm grateful to all who followed and added this story to their favorites, it makes me so happy! This chapter is just our tragic heroine trying to deal with this situation without becoming a crying, sobbing mess- how well did that work out I wonder? **

**On an honest note, I'm never sure whether to call her Colby or Megumi, because technically she isn't Colby anymore. I end up calling her Megumi or else I fear it will be too confusing. And what do you think of Aizawa? I tried my best to stay true to his character, I really hope I did him justice. Admittedly I don't know much about Tsukauchi, but I imagine he's a hard worker and a natural at getting information out of people.**

**I'm excited to write Megumi interact with class 1-A again, knowing how much mayhem the original Megumi has caused.**


	3. Panic

**Disclaimer: **I don't own My Hero Academia. I do own Megumi though.

**Warning: Her potty mouth gets increasingly stronger the longer I write her.**

* * *

_**\- Chapter 2 -**_

**Panic**

* * *

He felt a tiny bit of guilt as he watched his student blubber uncontrollably, wiping at her face furiously as snot and tears ran down her face akin to a broken faucet.

He had unjustly presumed that she had approached him with the intention of announcing her resignation from the hero course- and he had ended up misjudging her. She had just gone through a traumatic experience and he had only made it harder for her by getting his emotions involved. To think his 5 years of teaching experience only amounted to this...

From the very beginning, he hadn't been fond of Airashi and her ridiculous personality. He had half a mind to expel her alongside Midoriya that day on their quirk apprehension test, for her half-assed efforts and rotten attitude. But she knew how to handle her quirk pretty well for someone who had never had the desire to become a hero. He had no excuse for expelling someone who could wield their quirk well enough to have passed the entrance exam for recommended students, not to mention rank in the top 10 for his quirk apprehension test.

Besides, there were quite a lot of other problematic kids in his batch of first years this time around. It was safe to say that he already had his hands full with holding back a certain hothead from murdering his childhood friend. Airashi had been the least of his concerns, but maybe he should have payed more attention to her if it had meant preventing her from reckless heroic endeavours. Speaking of Endeavour, that man was still breathing down the UA staff's necks, wanting updates on his son's progress.

The tired sigh that left him couldn't do his weariness any justice.

"I apologize for being too harsh. But I hope you understand that your actions were not okay and reflect on that experience." Aizawa hoped she wasn't imitating Midoriya and his 'break-a-limb-talk-later' habit because lord knows he couldn't handle two of them.

* * *

If anyone had told her that she would one day be sitting across from Aizawa Shouta, breaking down in tears and freaking him out as she did so, she would have laughed in their face.

Megumi had walked in with the intention of asking Aizawa when classes would be resuming. Maybe act a bit ditzy and confused so she could play at having gaps in her memories (which technically wasn't untrue) and effectively blame her change of personality on the concussion she had gotten.

However, now that she had ended up bawling like a baby in front of him, she didn't even give a shit anymore. She was just so tired.

Not to mention it felt _weird_. She was calling herself Megumi, because she technically _was _Megumi. But it still felt like she was talking about an entirely different entity whenever she gave it too much thought.

In the end Megumi ended up getting escorted back to her room at around midnight, since she had lost all control over her tear ducts and didn't know how to stop crying once she started. Perhaps this had been for the better? Now that he had seen how shaken up she was he would assume that she had a change of heart from a near death experience. Now she would be even more motivated to become a great hero! Or something.

...Who was she kidding? Near death experience? _'Bitch I literally DIED.'_

No matter how much she wanted to go back and beg him to let her drop out, she was 100% sure she would get her ass kicked if she ever attempted it. The best she could do for now was get a good night's rest and figure everything out one at a time.

* * *

Spoiler: she didn't get a wink of sleep.

And long story short: her so-called parents were a pair of cold-hearted pricks.

As soon as she arrived home a bunch of maids started crowding her, pulling her into her room to doll her up for an afternoon brunch. Why did she need to dress up like a party whore for a simple brunch? Not only was she tired but she also had big ass bandages wrapped all around her. If they hadn't noticed already, she was _kinda _injured and should _perhaps _be getting some rest. But maybe that was just her plebeian common sense talking, pff.

She vaguely remembered Megumi sucking up to her parents like crazy, as if they were a pair of gods. What was so good about them that she had felt the need to worship them? From an outsider's perspective it made zero sense. Even though she was the eldest and the apparent heiress, they paid her no mind whatsoever. Her precious mommy preferred her younger brother and sister. Moreover, her daddy didn't give a flying fuck as long as she shut up. Tragic.

It wasn't hard to figure how the original Megumi had grown to be such an obnoxious superbrat.

The brunch was not only extremely silent but also extremely awkward.

They were acting like the last three days hadn't happened at all. Did they think ignoring the elephant in the room would make it go away? Not to mention her younger brother was glaring daggers at her as if she had personally killed his pet, among other atrocities. He was around 12 years old? The urge to smush his (very punchable) face into the cake he had in front of him was strong._ 'Dude I just came from the hospital, wtf is your problem?'_

Her younger sister had her head hung low, not daring to meet Megumi's eyes as if avoiding a barking dog. Even her 8 year old sister was avoiding her, and with such a terrified expression to boot.

An indifferent and borderline resentful family, an unrequited crush and to top it off, no friends...

Damn, sis had been living the life.

Her mother set down her fork as she cleared her throat. "You've been uncharacteristically silent. Is there something you would like to tell us Megumi?"

She did _not_ like the way this woman was looking at her."Ah, no. I'm just tired. It's been... hectic."

The feeling of four distinct pairs of eyes judging her bandaged forehead made her appetite fly out of the metaphorical window. She had the urge to literally jump out of one too.

"...I see. Very well."

Megumi could deal with the little shit sitting in the corner glaring at her. She could handle the nervous fidgeting of her younger sister, how her father went out of his way to sit in the seat farthest away from her and the way her mother tried to establish awkward eye contact.

What she _couldn't _deal with was the absolute silence and lack of conversation that made her feel like she was in the court room standing trial for whatever the fuck she had done wrong.

After prodding at her meal without really eating anything, she excused herself to her room and bailed out of there.

She couldn't stand being in that suffocating atmosphere any longer. It wasn't like they had regular meals together, so what had brought on the sudden family get-together? That was an experience she would rather not repeat. It had taken all her willpower not to make snarky comments while they just ate in silence, totally ignoring her, when she had better things to do than idle around.

Besides, the memories invading her subconscious whenever she looked at her mother weren't pleasant ones. From what her memories suggested, the original Megumi was nothing but a pawn to that snake of a woman.

She had already sensed that something was wrong when the original Megumi's behavior seemed like a slew of contradictions and bipolar tantrums. Her brattiness was off the charts, similar to her lack of common sense and antisocial tendencies. Who had made her that way?

The feeling of _wrongness _clung to her with its nasty claws. Something had not been right with Megumi.

But she couldn't dwell on that yet. There were much more important things to take care of first.

As soon as she arrived at her bedroom, she dismissed the maids who had reluctantly gathered to assist her. The relief that flooded her entirety at finally being alone was comforting.

Flopping onto the giant bed in the middle of her room, she took a sweeping glance at her surroundings. Everything was so... _pink. _But that didn't change the fact that she was lying down on the softest, most comfortable material she had ever come across. It made her want to close her eyes and just...

No no. Focus. _'I have class tomorrow. What am I going to do?'_

She straightened out her spine, took a deep breath and stood up. This is what she had come here for.

Megumi would have preferred staying in the hospital over having dreadful family dinners anytime. However, using quirks in public spaces was strictly prohibited. Of course heroes were permitted, because they had a hero license and renewed it every few years.

With a hospital crawling with doctors, nurses and security guards, she wouldn't have had a chance to acquaintance herself with her... superpowers.

She bit her lip. Wording it that way made her super excited.

The Original had been surprisingly proficient at using her quirk for someone who had only started training months before the entrance exam. Come to think of it, she wondered which poor bastard had been deprived of their place in UA since Megumi had made it into the programme. Both 1-A and 1-B seemed to have an even number of students. Feeling guilt wouldn't change a thing though.

Megumi's My Hero Academia was different from Colby's My Hero Academia. Even if the only difference was Megumi's sole existence.

Nevertheless, it did come across as pretty weird that they had put Megumi in 1-A considering that 1-B only had one recommended student compared to 1-A's three. The Original must have begged to be put in the same class as Todoroki. Christ, no wonder she had been so fucking selfish, had anybody even told her what 'No' meant?

How did they even manage to turn that egotistic girl into a depressed mess who had no qualms handing her body over to some random dead soul she came across?

'_Jeez, here I am thinking in circles. I need to focus."_

She walked in front of the huge vanity mirror decorating her wall and took a good look at herself.

Long, incredibly wavy blonde hair cascading down to her waist. Equally wavy bangs that she chose to part in the middle to make space for the bandages. Soft features, except for the high arched brows and sharp teal eyes. Teal eyes with... white, slit pupils? If she looked close enough, her eyes looked distinctly cat-like. They were pretty for sure, but became quite unnerving if she kept on looking into their depths.

Megumi took a deep breath and concentrated.

She had seen how her quirk looked in the Original's memories, yes. But seeing and doing were two different things. And what she needed right now was to get a grip on how she could even manifest her powers. Quirks were special for each individual- therefore, to 'Colby', Megumi's quirk was just as much of a stranger as Megumi herself.

She closed her eyes. Her arm reached out into empty air, towards the wall to her right.

'_I am... technically not Megumi. But I am also the closest anyone is ever gonna get to being her as long as she wants to stay dead.'_

Her fingers clasped around nothing in particular.

'_I really liked being Colby. I didn't hate it. But I can't bring her back.'_

Brows furrowed, she reached out with her other hand as if checking for something invisible. She could _feel _something thrumming, reaching back out to her. Whatever it was, it felt just as lost and confused as she had been on that day. As if it was seeing for the first time that it had _lost _something, but didn't know what or why.

'_In the least, I can help set things straight here. This is not what I thought would happen when I died. Certainly didn't think I would end up somewhere fictional... well, I guess it isn't fictional anymore. What else is there to do? I really don't want to die again.'_

She extended her hands towards the unfamiliar warmth. She didn't know how much time had passed, but she had lowered herself to the floor to sit a long time ago. She latched onto the unknown- until it squeezed her hand back.

'_I can be Megumi. I can live in her stead. Until the day she comes back and tells me I'm not needed anymore.'_

She opened her eyes.

Her heart beat was going crazy.

Wound tightly around her hands were chains. A complex web of glowing seafoam green lit up her entire room, and she found herself trapped in the maze of chains she had accidentally created.

* * *

Oh god she was going to school.

As she sat in the back of her limousine (why the actual fuck was she going to school in a limousine), Megumi wondered if dying would have been a better alternative after all.

The moment her alarm went off at around 7am, the realization that she was utterly emotionally and physically unprepared for what was to come hit her full force.

She had been so engrossed with trying to familiarize herself with the freaking _chains _coming out of her that she hadn't even eaten dinner last night. It had taken her forever to figure out how to make them disappear. Until then, she couldn't let anyone into her room. Nor had she gotten any sleep- for the second day in a row. To say she felt like shit would've been an understatement. Nausea and sleep deprivation were a terrible combo.

Dragging herself out of bed, Megumi hadn't even bothered trying to make herself presentable. Her hair would take forever to brush and makeup always made her itchy, so she skipped those altogether. After haphazardly throwing on her school uniform (maybe she should have been fangirling about that, but she was just so _tired_) and clumsily replacing the bandages on her head with new ones, she had speed-ran into the driveway. Her school bag had been completely forgotten and Megumi had to _go back up to get it_ all the way up the stairs.

Who knew living in a mansion would have its downsides?

She couldn't even relax enough to get a bit more sleep during her ride to school, because _jesus christ she was going to meet all these main characters in real life and they all fucking hated her. _Her heart was racing so fast she feared it would leap out of her chest, onto the ground in a gory mess.

When they arrived at the gates, Megumi thought she was having a heart attack. She reigned in her desire to scream and swallowed the dying noises threatening to spill out of her throat.

And as she walked through UA's front gates, she suddenly felt ridiculously tired. What was the point of panicking? She had a headache, her joints hurt with every step she took and she just wanted to sleep. _'You died once and you're gonna let a bunch of high schoolers scare you? Heeell no.'_

On her way to the classroom, she could hear the whispers and murmurs around her as students recognized her to be the one girl from 1-A who got her ass kicked by villains. Not that she could tell them to fuck off. Gossip was what high schoolers thrived on, she had no interest in those things whatsoever.

Megumi stood in front of the big door that separated her from the source of all her anxiety. She took deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. Her chaotic morning had caused her a bit of delay, so she would probably be the last one arriving to class. The bell was going to ring in 5 minutes. _'Damn I wanna throw up.'_

Without further ado, she slid open the door.

Immediately, eyes of all shapes and sizes seemed to latch onto her. Megumi stood awkwardly in the doorway.

Well, fuck.

Was it just her or did her heart just stop functioning? She couldn't even bring herself to meet their stares.

_'No no. Stand your ground. Go to your seat. They're just a bunch of kids, you're a grown ass woman, act like it!'_

But before she could do so, a green blur literally came out of nowhere and threw itself in front of her. What followed next made her want to both laugh and cry hysterically.

Midoriya was bowing profusely, mumbling incoherent apologies as Uraraka and Iida stood to his sides, their hands outstretched in a futile attempt to calm him down. "I am so so so sorry Airashi-san! If I hadn't hesitated and payed more attention back there, you wouldn't have had to save me! You got hurt because of me, it's all my fault and I'm really so sorry, I wanted to visit you in the hospital to apologize in person a lot sooner but they placed us under supervised house arrest after that incident in USJ and I couldn't get a hold of your phone number and even called your family estate but they told me you were busy and I'm _really-_"

Megumi could only blink in bewilderment as he continued his deranged tirade, without even gasping for air. It was morbidly impressive.

From the corner of her eye she could see that Kirishima, Kaminari and Ashido were a snickering mess. When she made eye contact with Uraraka and Iida, they simply shrugged as if saying 'What can you do sometimes'.

Okay, out of all possible outcomes, she hadn't been expecting such an... enthusiastic greeting. She should have known that UA students weren't big on bullying, it was only natural that they wouldn't ignore an injured classmates in spite of how annoying they were. Firstly, she had to get the attention off of herself and Midoriya for the sake of her own sanity. Honestly he was kind of scaring her right now.

What was the best way to go about this? Sighing wearily, she lightly bumped her fist on Midoriya's bowed head. Wow his hair was really wild. "Uh... don't worry about it. Anybody would have done the same."

He went silent.

Then, he proceeded to look at her as if she had told him the strangest thing ever. Why did the classroom feel quieter than before? Uncomfortable, she removed her hand and trudged over to her seat.

What was that?

Conversations resumed a while later and her weird interaction with Midoriya seemed to have been forgotten. Megumi was thankful that most people were too preoccupied with their own small talk to really approach her.

As she sat down, she pointedly ignored the intense chill creeping up on her despite the light shining onto her seat through the window.

Right. Of course she was sitting next to Todoroki.

_'Where the hell is Aizawa-sensei?' _

* * *

**A/N:**

**Heya! Thank you for reading. :)**

**Your reviews keep me going. **

**Also, I feel like this chapter turned out quite boring. It's certainly not my favorite so far, but I wracked my brain trying to imagine how 1A would react if Megumi suddenly stopped being an asshole. More of that in the next chapters I guess. Really, my biggest fear right now is making anyone OOC. Considering how most UA students can tolerate Bakugou's explosive personality, I think they wouldn't be affected much by the original Megumi's annoying antics. Megumi just assumed they all hated her, but I don't think future heroes would be that petty. **

**Someone suggested line breaks to separate different POVs to make it less confusing and I'm trying to implement that! I was originally going to write this story from a 3rd person POV, but Megumi's personality kind of mixed a bit too well into the writing and now I guess I'll be writing different POVs lol. I hope I'm not giving her too much crackhead energy. I hope I can make the next chapter more exciting.**

**See you all next week!**


	4. Curious

**Disclaimer:** The plot and characters of My Hero Academia belong to Horikoshi Kouhei.

* * *

**_\- Chapter 3 -_**

**Curious**

* * *

Ever since he had begun attending UA, Izuku had met a multitude of personalities. Everyone in the hero course was colorful and unique in a way that made him overly conscious of his own plain self.

Among them was, of course, Airashi Megumi. Although they didn't interact much, Izuku liked to think that she, in the least, acknowledged his existence with her petty jibes and haughty ridicule.

She never hung out with anyone besides Todoroki and usually had a sharp insult or two up her sleeve for anyone who dared to approach her. Ochako had told him once that she would go out of her way to change in the lavatories instead of in the locker rooms, just to avoid talking with them. Iida would always say that she had never been particularly amicable when they were younger and that her behavior had only gotten worse, with a disappointed shake of his head.

Izuku himself didn't harbor any ill feelings towards her, even when she snubbed or sneered at him with eyes so cold they could freeze a lava pit. If he hadn't written a full diary entry on her quirk already, he would have mistaken her quirk to be the ability to make anyone she looked at feel like a bug.

Maybe if he had met her in middle school, her words might have hurt him. Alas, he had his plate full with training both his body and mind in order to make All Might proud of his progress- nothing could discourage him now that he knew there was hope for him to achieve his dreams of becoming a hero. Kacchan could never bully him into giving up. Airashi's cold dismissal couldn't phase him either.

Izuku found that although both of them were fairly unpleasant, their aggression differed from each other. Kacchan got a lot more physical with the source of his anger (usually Izuku) and freely expressed his discontent to anyone standing 10 meters within his blast radius. Airashi on the other hand would throw a tantrum similar to that of a child, complaining and tearing down the person she addressed until they yielded to her demands. She was stubborn, perfectly shameless and most importantly, extremely self-centered.

So self-centered in fact that he couldn't help but pity her. For an egomaniac, she sure wasn't doing herself any favors.

Did she intentionally choose to ignore the unadulterated distaste Todoroki treated her with or did she really not realize his aversion to her mere presence? Why was she pushing away anyone who attempted to befriend her? Did she think they weren't worth her time? And the most pressing question Izuku found himself wondering about: someone who had no interest in heroes nor a desire to become one... what was she doing at UA?

'_She must have a reason- everyone has a reason.' _He would tell himself. But with each passing day, his vexation would grow.

Izuku couldn't forgive someone who had no rhyme or reason to become a hero.

And yet...

When he felt himself being shoved aside by slender yet strong arms, everything seemed to play out in slow motion.

Before the Nomu's fist made contact with Airashi, teal chains whipped out to wrap around its bulging muscles. She was flung away and with the ensuing momentum, the Nomu let out an ear-splitting screech when the chains ripped out the entirety of its arm. As quick as they had manifested, Airashi's chains disappeared in a wispy cloud of dust.

Before the resulting spray of blood could even land on the ground, All Might had charged into the clearing scooping up all four students stuck in the flood zone and dropping them off where the rest of their classmates had gathered.

Everything that happened afterwards was a blur to him.

The expression on her face at the moment of impact had haunted Izuku for days to come. He still wasn't sure if he had imagined it or not.

(Why would anyone be smiling, knowing they might die? He must have seen wrong.)

All Might made quirk work of the Nomu. It wouldn't stop screaming as its body struggled with regenerating the arm that had been ripped off, the flesh of its shoulder rotting away as if infected. With their Nomu down for the count and more pro heroes arriving to the scene, the villains had no other choice but to retreat. With the situation sorted, All Might had bid them a hasty farewell and Izuku worried that his mentor had pushed himself too far for him to make such a quick exit.

They were later told that Aizawa-sensei and Airashi were both transported to the hospital immediately, but that the class couldn't visit them, for they would be under supervised house arrest until the media and the legal procedures were taken care of. Some parents were not happy with the incident and wanted an explanation as to how this could have happened. His own mother had been ready to storm into UA's offices until he had fretfully managed to talk her out of it.

Meanwhile, the guilt was eating Izuku alive. Did heroes really _need _an explicit reason for wanting to be a hero? Airashi might not have had a real reason to become a hero- but that didn't mean he had the right to judge her based on his own prejudices as to what a hero should strive to be like.

So what if she didn't have a reason? She had still saved him.

As soon as he'd seen the messy blonde hair sliding the door open, he had stopped conversing mid-sentence and sped towards her as fast as a bullet, the apologies that had been on the tip of his tongue ever since that day spilling from his mouth like a waterfall. He had bowed low in an attempt to avoid those blue-green eyes that would undoubtedly look at him as if he were pure trash.

And maybe he was- after all, Izuku had never even bothered understanding her and written her off as someone with no drive whatsoever. Even now, he was apologizing because he wanted to get the guilt off of his chest. But someone with shallow intentions would never risk her own life for another...

He expected a barrage of verbal insults. A slap or punch, a sneer or whatever else that would embarrass him in front of the whole class. Heck, perhaps she would just straight up ignore his apology and leave him standing awkwardly. Izuku just closed his eyes tight and continued mumbling apologies in an attempt to stave off the inevitable.

And then he felt it. A light fist coming down onto the back of his head and slightly ruffling his hair. A haggard voice, similar to how his mother would placate him when he used to come home crying because of Kacchan.

"Uh.. don't worry about it. Anybody would have done the same."

_...Had he unknowingly crossed over to some kind of alternate universe?_

Bewildered, he looked up only to see her walking towards her seat. Todoroki's weary-confused expression when she sat down without sparing him a glance would have made him laugh under normal circumstances, but Izuku was far too preoccupied with what had just happened.

'_Just how hard did the Nomu hit her?!'_

He whipped his head toward Ochako and Iida, lifting a weak finger at Airashi's direction while sputtering. Ochako shrugged, scratching the back of her head uneasily. "Well, that was pretty different."

Iida coughed. "That was very brave of you Midoriya. Nevertheless, it's time for us to get back to our seats! The bell has rung a while ago and it doesn't seem like we will be having a substitute teacher!"

The change of topic was welcome, but Izuku still ended up overthinking everything as he sat down. Was that really Airashi? Had her concussion been _that _bad?

Iida was at the front of the classroom within seconds. "Everyone! Morning homeroom is about to begin. To your seats!"

Its not like he had been hoping for a beat-down or anything, but he hadn't expected her to look so tired and 100% done with life either.

"We're sitting, you're the only one up..."

The classroom door slid open with a _Tchak!, _revealing a heavily bandaged Aizawa. He muttered a lethargic "Morning." as he walked up to his desk.

Whatever the case, that apology had not only _not _eased his guilt in the least, but had also opened up a whole new world of questions concerning Airashi's sanity.

"You're back already Aizawa-sensei?! What an undeniable pro..."

* * *

Megumi felt like she was having an actual fever dream. Not a good one either.

"UA's sports festival is fast approaching."

She held back the urge to slide down in her seat and just disappear into the floor in a puddle of nothing.

The sports festival... so that's where they were at. It wasn't like she didn't know what the fuck to do with her quirk or anything. _'It's not like I learned how to activate my quirk YESTERDAY or anything.'_

Yeah, she was kind of in deep shit.

There were some voices of dissent within the class regarding the sports festival, and she leaned forward hoping that she could perhaps maybe sit out on this one? Was that an option?

"It's mandatory."

Megumi leaned her head back praying for salvation. _'Sensei... Aizawa-sensei, you're killing me.'_

"We need to demonstrate that UA's crisis management protocols are sound. That's the idea anyway. Compared to past years, there will be 5 times the police presence. Anyhow, aside from that... our sports festival is the greatest opportunity you'll get."

Was it though?

Sure, it was an event that enabled students to showcase their quirks and battle abilities to an audience as large as that of the Olympic games... but on the downside, _they had to showcase their quirks and abilities to an audience as large as that of the Olympic games. _

Which meant triple the embarrassment she would have experienced at a normal school function.

Megumi had a long way to go before she could actually figure out how to battle let alone _walk _with the chains she could conjure. It didn't help that her stamina was absolutely pitiful. The number of chains she could call upon were limited and their lengths depended on how many chains she created at the same time. Hence the higher her number of chains, the shorter their lengths.

Once they dispersed, she found that all her energy disappeared along with them. Considering that she could hold on to them for a maximum of 5 minutes before she felt faint and dizzy, she would have to make her fights short enough to score a win without fainting before her timer ran out. Another tactic she could employ was to use her quirk sparingly in intermittent bursts to make the most out of it.

From the very beginning, since the previous night when she had first activated her quirk, Megumi had been brainstorming about how she could survive future events without making too much of a fool of herself. So far, she had decided that the only thing that could possibly improve her survival rates was training.

Lots of training. Training until she bled sweat and sweat blood.

Megumi wasn't scrawny by all means, but she would certainly stand no chance in a 1v1 battle against an opponent with higher endurance. Hell, even 1-B's thornbush-hair girl could easily beat her, considering _she _didn't have to expend precious life force to summon fancy glowing chains.

Fuck, now she had flashbacks to the painful warm ups her swimming coaches had forced on her in 6th grade. Not to mention the hellish laps she had run in the high school girls football club she'd been a member of, before resigning to focus on her studies. Colby had been decently athletic as a kid- though, the same couldn't be said of her adult version.

Yaoyorozu piped up from somewhere in the front. "Japan's top heroes will be watching, right? They'll be there as scouts!"

Megumi cringed remembering the whole ass tantrum the Original had thrown when she saw that Yaoyorozu would be sitting in the back next to Todoroki, and had all but begged to switch seats with her. Another cringe attack was on its way. _'God, please, forget it forget it forget it, that was so stupid AGH.'_

Never mind that. Yaoyorozu was right- the nation's top heroes would be attending. If Megumi embarrassed herself, she'd be doing it in front of hundreds of trained professionals.

...unacceptable.

She would rather _die _than look like an idiot who couldn't even control her quirk properly.

Getting internship requests, getting hired as a sidekick after graduation... she didn't care about that stuff. In fact, they seemed so trivial and so far away compared to what they were going to go through as first year students alone, that she couldn't even get excited about the fact she would be in the immediate vicinity of real life superheroes.

Fame and glory or whatever, the others could have it all. Megumi wanted a fresh start. She had promised herself; to Colby and the Original and even the chains that had coiled around her hands so lovingly in the comfort of her own room; she had promised that she wouldn't give up. Becoming a hero was her only option. It was the only thing she really _had. _Without any friends or family to depend on, it was all she had. A stupid sports festival wouldn't put an end to that.

Besides, the sports festival was an annual event. Megumi could give it her all knowing there would always be a next year.

With a new resolve, she powered through the math and modern literature classes. It was a bit confusing coming to terms with actually being able to read, write and comprehend Japanese- a language she had never once learned in her previous life. Her thoughts were still in English though... maybe she should see if she still had her American accent despite having switched to a body that wasn't as experienced with speaking English.

The bell rung after fourth period, signifying the start of their lunch break.

Everyone else was chattering between themselves, excited about the upcoming sports festival. Especially Uraraka. Her fighting spirit really shone through. Megumi admired that, especially knowing she herself didn't aim to achieve much during the festival.

She rummaged around her bag, finding the big, extravagant lunch box the maids had prepared for her. While leaving the classroom, she dropped it into a nearby trash can and made her way to the canteen.

On her way, she accidentally bumped shoulders with someone. With a glance she identified the red eyes and volcanic expression as none other than Bakugou. He pulled his lips so far back his canines and molars were visible, resembling a rabid dog ready to bite her throat off.

She scurried even faster into the canteen's direction. _'Nope. Not today. Or ever.'_

* * *

Megumi stood to the side next to a wending machine in the canteen, with the bowl of ramen she had obtained after waiting in line for what felt like forever.

She didn't know where to sit. Where she _could _sit. The Original would always eat lunch with Todoroki, but she herself wasn't very keen on eating with someone who obviously felt uncomfortable with her. He looked perfectly content sitting by himself on one of the tables far away from all the noise.

Suddenly, her vision was obscured by a pink hand waving in front of her face.

She recognized the owner of the hand as Ashido. The pinkette had an easygoing smile on her face. "Heya Megumi! Watcha doing all alone?"

Megumi blinked when Asui chimed in, a finger on her lip in thought. Her wide eyes briefly glanced at the ramen in her hands. "It's unusual, ribbit. How come?"

With a nervous laugh, Megumi tried not to show her discomfort at being caught loitering all alone, like some loser. "Ahh, yeah. Well..."

She was honestly impressed by how _articulate _she could sound sometimes.

After a while of Megumi just awkwardly shifting around and trying to come up with an excuse, the two girls seemed to get the message that she wasn't in any mood to entertain their curiosity. Ashido giggled lightheartedly, patting her shoulder in an attempt to get her to relax. "If you're looking for a place to eat, I heard the school's rooftop is a nice place. Definitely not as crowded as the canteen."

Slyly, she also added, "Of course, we wouldn't mind if you sat down with us either."

Megumi could see Asui giving her an encouraging smile from behind the beaming Ashido. Suddenly, she felt butterflies in her stomach. The friendly aura they gave off was off the charts. So that's what being a hero course student was all about!

She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten together with her girl friends... there hadn't been much of an opportunity for her as Colby, seeing as they were all adults and too busy to meet up regularly. It had been pretty lonely.

It almost brought a tear to her eyes. They were offering her such a small thing- but for her, it felt enormous. Ever since she had woken up as Megumi, it had been one disappointment after another. A busted body, a livid homeroom teacher, a terrible family dynamic, no friends; in comparison, this really was a breath of fresh air. She really wanted to go with them.

However...

"I'll give the rooftop a try. A change of scenery doesn't sound bad."

She needed some time alone.

Their smiles dimmed a little, but they still maintained their affability. Ashido retracted her hand from Megumi's shoulder ever so slowly. "I see. Well-"

Megumi held onto Ashido's sleeve, the heat crawling up her neck and onto her cheeks. "M-maybe I can join you next time. Definitely. Yeah. I'll go now, thanks, bye." She then proceeded to march towards the exit, disappearing around the corner.

If she turned around, she would have seen the stunned, yet pleased faces both Asui and Ashido sported.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Yo guys! Another week, another chapter.**

**Thanks for your follows, favorites and, of course, your reviews. They make my day. :')**

**Would you look at that, Megumi being awkward with her classmates. Awww. I was actually thinking of making Megumi act all cold and cool, before she went ahead and did her own thing with Tsuyu and Mina... Originally I didn't intend to include them at all. XD**

**A brief interaction with Bakugou, just cuz I could. You can tell it's gonna be a slow burn by the current state of their relationship. And the sports festival... hoo boy. Megumi has got a lot of catching up to do.**


	5. Frustration

**Disclaimer: **I only own Megumi. My Hero Academia belongs to Horikoshi Kouhei.

* * *

_**\- Chapter 4 -**_

**Frustration**

* * *

The rooftop turned out to be a much nicer spot than she had imagined.

Sure, she had to make a beeline all the way over to the building next to the hero department's facilities, but other than that it was an exceptionally calm and quiet place to eat. There were a few students who were milling around, chattering amongst each other and generally minding their own business. She could appreciate that.

From where she was sitting and peacefully eating her ramen, Megumi could take in the view of UA's campus in all its glory. Finally being alone with her thoughts after having escaped the classroom was a huge relief. Not that she had anything against her classmates or the teachers- but it simply just became too much for her seeing such familiar yet surreal faces everywhere.

Not to mention she had no idea how Megumi usually acted during class, so she would have to bear with the strange looks she received until they got used to her new behavior. By no means was she an actor. She also didn't see the upside of trying to act like a brat when she knew that the guilt and shame would eat her alive from the inside. It was better to let them believe that the local Diva of class 1-A had a change of heart following the USJ Incident.

A crash followed by various surprised yelps came from somewhere behind her.

She looked back to see a group of girls who had been sitting together near the stairs. One of them had udon spilled all over her shirt and on the floor. _'Ah, unfortunate. Don't general studies kids have to pay for canteen food?'_

Setting down her bowl, Megumi stood up from her place while rummaging through the pockets in her skirt.

The girls flinched when they saw her approaching. Megumi stared right back at their spooked expressions, slightly amused by their suspicion. Her reputation must have reached even other departments. Smoothly, she drew her hand out of her pocket and offered the girl with the soiled shirt a handkerchief along with some tissues. _'I prepared them just in case I broke down crying during the day. But it's been going well so far, so I don't think I'll need them.' _"I heard Lunch Rush-san likes giving out seconds for free."

And with that, her job was done and she went back to sitting cross-legged in the spot she had designated for herself. _'Now where was I…' _

Ah yes, her behavior. Telling someone about her real identity wasn't even an option- she'd be labeled batshit insane. Or a possible villain who hijacked Airashi Megumi's body during the Incident. Both were not her cup of tea. Moreover, did she even know _what _her 'real' identity was at this point? Sometimes her memories seemed to blend and turn blurry, like having paint colors mixing together creating a mess. It didn't help that there was no one who could slap her across the face and drag her back up to reality when it happened. Well, maybe if she made some friends…

She couldn't stop the stupid smile from appearing on her face when she thought back to Ashido's offer. Sure, maybe that had just been out of pity or courtesy, but it had made her happy nonetheless. Those words had managed to thaw away the chill that had overcome her while sitting next to the walking glacier called Todoroki. Another reason she had gone out of her way to avoid him during lunch was because he had been making her side of the room _freezing _despite her facing his hot side and she was very much someone who preferred warm places. What if he made her food go cold as soon as she sat next to him?

That would be evil. She would rather not turn him into such a criminal.

Checking her watch, she saw there were 5 minutes left of lunch time. _'Better get the dishes back to the cafeteria and head back to class. Got 4 more classes to survive before I can go home.'_

* * *

"_Hey hey isn't that the girl?"_

"_Omg why is she here… this is ruining my appetite."_

"_Hmph, she looks fine for having faced villains. They were making such a big deal out of nothing."_

They couldn't have _not _noticed her coming onto the rooftop, because hero course students almost never left their side of the school. What was Airashi Megumi, the snootiest and most obnoxious 1-A student doing on their rooftop?

"_I bet she got ditched. It's what she deserves."_

"_Bet. Wish she didn't come here of all places."_

"_Look at her, looking like she owns the place. UA would have never accepted her if she didn't have a rich daddy."_

Just the sight of her made the annoyance and jealousy swell up within them. All everyone had been talking about ever since the USJ Incident was how brave and strong the 1-A kids were. How they would become excellent heroes in the future. How _proud _they made UA. How fortunate they should count themselves to even be in the same school as them.

All they saw was a bunch of privileged kids lucky enough to have good quirks and good connections.

In the eyes of those lucky bastards, any other department besides the hero department might as well not exist. What made them furious was the utter disregard hero apprentices would give them, looking right through them as if they were just furniture standing in the hallways as they lived out their hero fantasies to the fullest extent. How dare they mock them with their stupid, happy-go-lucky demeanors.

Even if they were loud, rude and annoying, the teachers would always take their side, praising them. They had taken the same exact entrance exams as those guys, yet they ended up being benched and thrown into general studies like garbage that didn't have what it takes.

_What did 1-A have that they didn't?_

Their whispers and sneers turned into yelps. Komachi had spilled udon broth all over herself.

Light footsteps approached them. They looked on, mortified.

'_Did she hear us?!'_

A pale hand reached out to them with a handkerchief and tissues.

Her wavy blonde hair looked messy, as if she hadn't bothered to brush it for days. Bandages were wrapped around her head, a few band-aids decorating her face, unusually devoid of makeup. She stood before them with her untied laces and school tie with all the confidence in the world. Teal eyes were set on them, as if daring them to confess what they had been saying behind her back- but no, she couldn't have heard them. Right?

Her lips turned slightly upwards when a nervous Komachi accepted her offer.

"I heard Lunch Rush-san likes giving out seconds for free."

Ah.

Despite all that, they couldn't help but think she looked pretty when she smiled.

* * *

The day went relatively uneventful, just the way she liked it.

She religiously ignored Todoroki's suspicious glares and Midoriya's big wide puppy eyes. Nothing could shake her, she was unshakeable- a big ass mountain. Unmovable, unshakeable, a piece of rock personified. Ugh if only he stopped looking at her like that.

Therefore, Megumi made sure to pay extra attention in class: both in order to wrap her head around high school level concepts once again and to escape the pressure she was feeling. English was a torture to sit through- not because it was difficult, but because of how _boring _it was. Doing basic grammar exercises in English felt like she had been transported back into primary school.

A couple of Yaoyorozu's diligent answers, Midoriya's scary mumblings and Mineta's pervy comments later (little shit was sitting right in front of her she was so fucking _done-_) classes eventually ended. She could finally go home. _'I survived the first day. Only 3 more years to go.'_

With a sigh she started packing up her things. From the corner of her eye she could see Midoriya slowly inching his way towards her. _'Oh god, what does he want. I gotta go fast.' _Had he figured it out? No no, even if he was smart, that was impossible. So why was he so dead-set on talking to her? Because he wanted to apologize again? God he should just let it be, what was done was done, it hadn't been his fault in the first place.

Before she could even attempt to bolt out of the door, a certain someone stood in front of her again. Megumi blinked, surprised.

Ashido gave her one of her infectious smiles. "Hey! I was wondering if you wanted to walk together to the train station with Tsu-chan and I."

Ah man. The butterflies were there again. How could she say no to that? Oh but her chauffeur… hm. She bit her lip in deep thought.

The pink haired girl perked up at the equally pleasant smile blooming on Megumi's face. "I would love that."

"Uwah, great! Let's wait a bit for Tsu-chan to collect her things and we can go right away."

Now that she was busy listening to Ashido chattering away about her day, she observed Midoriya scratching his head at the missed opportunity and walking back to Iida and Ochako. _'Oof, safe for now.' _The main character showing such interest in her new self made her unnecessarily paranoid. It would be best to keep her distance.

She had been so busy secretly celebrating her minor victory that she had forgotten about what was going to happen next.

Just as Asui was done packing, Ochako's fearful exclamation turned heads. "Woah… What's going on?!"

Outside of their classroom were a horde of students from every department, staring at them as if they were exotic zoo animals. 1-A students stared right back with wide eyes, dumbfounded.

Oh lord it was time for the shitshow.

Bakugou stepped forward, looking unimpressed. "Cuz we're the kids who survived a villain attack. Makes sense they'd want a look before the Sports Festival." Uh oh. Megumi cringed away from the door slightly, praying she could just disappear under the floorboards. "No point, though. Move aside, _cannon fodder._"

What the fuck was this crazy bastard- couldn't he have waited until she had managed to flee the classroom?!

A wild head of purple pushed his way to the front. He was _tall, _so tall he stuck out from the crowd. _'Great, more clowns for the circus. Might as well enjoy the show while I'm here.' _There wasn't much she could do aside from watch the events unfold before her. It wasn't like her reputation had been all that good anyway.

"Are all the kids in the hero course like this one? Gotta say, I'm a little disillusioned if this is what you're offering."

Megumi tiptoed and came to a stand next to Iida. Front row seats to such a spectacle were a must. She felt like she was watching a TV drama on live recording. High schoolers squabbling with each other over pride and social hierarchy were sort of funny. She remembered the petty arguments she used to get into with her friends back in high school. Good times.

"Depending on the results of this Sports Festival, they might consider transferring us to the hero course. I understand the _reverse _is also possible for you…"

Wait a minute… this guy… was saying some pretty smart stuff. Why hadn't she thought of that before? If her performance was absolute trash during the Sports Festival, she could be automatically expelled from the hero course. Especially considering she was a recommended student. But… that kind of method of escaping… it felt disingenuous. Running away would only prove that she was a coward.

Once again, she was reminded of her parents and their complete disinterest in the Original. They had never taken her seriously from the very beginning. And from what she had seen so far, they likely never would. They didn't need her to be good in her studies or have a good personality or whatever else. She was the heir only in name- what they needed was a pretty face who could represent them until they could officially delegate the role of company president over to her younger brother. If she really had been the heir, they would have never allowed her to pursue UA's hero course.

What would become of her if she lost her place in UA? She would be… at their mercy.

She suppressed the trembling of her hands. It was as if the Original herself was screaming at her not to end up playing into their games. _'Calling that woman my mother is an insult to my real mom… that snake would manipulate the situation in her favor. Without the hero course, I would be nothing.'_

Megumi would proceed as she had initially planned. It would be a hard ride, but continuing her path as a hero was the best choice. This is what Colby had dreamed of all along, and it was what would save her in the end. Fighting off villains was nothing compared to being powerless for that woman to do as she pleased. Her father was a fool with no ambition, but the Original's memories proved far too well how far her supposed mother would go to achieve her goals.

Training… yes, she already had some things in mind for that but-

"And _you,_"

Huh? "M-me?"

Purple eyes squinted at her in distain. "Don't think you can flatter or bribe people now that you know the Sports Festival is coming up. Everyone knows how you got into the hero course in the first place. Nobody is going to go easy on you just because your family can pull some strings. UA doesn't need someone like you- you're just as arrogant as that guy over there." The murmurs and whispers in the crowd increased.

What in the... "You're lumping me in with _him_?!"

A blazing red glare fumed in her direction. "HA?!"

'…_I just said that out loud.'_

Megumi had been standing around, minding her own_ fucking business_ and not even hearing half of the things being said, and this asshole decides to rip into her for no reason? What the fuck. Rude.

If he was gonna make it personal, she sure as hell would do too.

She cleared her throat. "Alright, _Shinsou Hitoshi-san. _Let's make one thing crystal clear. _You're _the one who came here with intentions to provoke us. _You're _the one declaring war on us- quite one-sidedly might I add. I don't know what kind of damage you got," She could feel the intense aura of her classmates telling her to _please stop talking for the love of god _but she had enough of this person running his mouth off and most importantly, dragging her into this. It was starting to piss her off.

She just wanted to go home, damn it. "But you making a scene in front of our classroom doesn't inconvenience only us, but the other classrooms in this hallway as well. The so-called pedestals you're talking about don't exist. I don't give a fuck about what you think of me. If there's someone looking down on general studies, it's _you._ If they have something to prove, they're gonna do so in the Sports Festival by their own accord. How dare you assume they need you to make unnecessary drama for them. Shut the hell up if you can't show us what you got without sounding like a child you piece of shi-!"

Two people linked their arms around Megumi's and flanked her from both sides as they started dragging her away. Ashido's grip was particularly strong as she nervously laughed, saluting a goodbye as she did so. "Ahaha, don't mind her, she's been having a bad day! We gotta get home soon, wouldn't wanna miss the train, the daily grind y'know it! Haha!"

Asui had Megumi's bag hanging off her tongue as she glanced back. "We'll get going, kero."

The blonde struggled in their hold. "Let go! I got plenty more to say to that son of a b-" and her words faded into the distance as they disappeared around the corner.

You could have heard a pin drop at the silence that followed.

'…_What just happened?'_

* * *

Megumi was crouched in a corner in front of the school gates, gloom hanging over her amidst Ashido's manic laughter.

"Oh man! I can't believe you did that. You went _off _on him bwahaha!"

She held her head in her hands, desperately trying to stop that scene from replaying in her mind over and over again. "I just… I-I didn't mean to. It's been a long day…"

"You should have seen his face pfhahah that was perfect!"

All the thoughts weighing on her mind and taking a toll on her emotions had burst out of her in that moment. Having Shinsou's accusations interrupt her while she had been thinking of some important plans for the future had made the anger inside of her explode. If they hadn't dragged her away from there she undoubtedly would have said some pretty nasty stuff.

Asui gave her shoulder a pat of sympathy. "That was kind of cool, kero. Never thought I would hear such things from you Airashi-chan."

It must have been out of character to see her not whining or complaining, but reacting with plain anger for once. She'd just been so sick and tired of having shit thrown her way for things she hadn't been responsible for. Did they not know that money meant absolutely nothing to UA? That the Original had worked hard to get accepted into the hero course like everyone else? It was ridiculous how such petty rumors could grow as time passed. Regardless, as someone with the mental age of an adult, she should have restrained herself better and just kept her trap shut.

She peeked at the still laughing Ashido and calm Asui. They had really helped her out today. In fact, they had been pretty much the only people from her class she had properly interacted with so far. Excluding Midoriya and the slew of apologies he had bombarded her with.

Megumi let out a few laughs of her own. "How about we grab something to eat before going home?"

* * *

"That was unexpectedly _manly!"_

Sero and Kaminari watched on in amusement as Kirishima threw his fist in the air, eyes starstruck. "There he goes again..."

"I never knew Airashi had it in her! She challenged him right back! So manly- I'm jealous!"

Kaminari sighed. "Man, that was pretty scary though... both her and blasty going in on that guy, I thought someone was going to die."

Sero snickered at his comment, turning back to the excited redhead. "'Manly' huh? You said the same thing about Bakugou. Who do you think is manlier?"

He looked the cellophane user dead in the eye. "Bakugou."

"Wow, no hesitation!"

With a hand on his chin, Kirishima seemed to be in deep thought. "...for now."

* * *

**A/N:**

**Phew. Good day everyone! **

**I love reviews. Whenever I'm stuck at writing, reading the encouragement you give me is wonderful. Be it long or short, I love them all!**

**I'm so happy some of you guys have caught on to some hints already. **

**Writing Megumi and her interactions with people is stressful, but also pretty fun. Writing freeform is a wild ride, too. God knows how many times I've changed the scenarios in this chapter before settling on this. I wonder how the Sports Festival is going to turn out. I have a faint idea of what I want to do, but that's always subject to change whenever I start working on the chapters. **

**I promise I don't hate Shinsou! This is just how it turned out. Megumi has a short fuse.**

**Hope you enjoyed this one! **


	6. Training Interlude

**Disclaimer: **My Hero Academia belongs to Horikoshi Kouhei! I'm just here for the fun.

* * *

_**\- Chapter 5 -**_

**Training Interlude**

* * *

Two weeks until the Sports Festival.

Megumi had _two weeks _to whip herself and her quirk into shape. Enough to get her into the Top 42 during the obstacle race, in the least.

First thing she ought to be working on was stamina. Even without using her quirk, she tired out too fast. The Original had a habit of compensating for it with expensive tools and gadgets, but she really didn't want to carry around all that stuff and have it weigh her down. Ever since she had gone out to eat with Ashido and Asui, she had realized that going home by train and on foot was much less anxiety inducing than getting transported via a freaking limousine. She had called her chauffeur and let him know that he didn't need to pick her up today, but she was beginning to entertain the idea of just telling him to never pick her up again.

Jogging from home to school and back sounded like a nice exercise. The distance would be long enough to make her sweat, but not enough to make her collapse halfway.

What else did she need to work on? Megumi scrunched up her face, tapping her notebook with her pencil impatiently as she sat in her room. _'Oh right.' _Strength training. Sure she was athletic, but not as athletic as she imagined a pro hero to be. Her built was lean and fit, but not muscly per-se. She was so light that even Recovery Girl would probably be able to lift her up without trouble. That needed to change… and she had just the right idea for what to do about it. Giggling madly to herself, she wrote down '100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 squats daily' in her notebook. There would just be something inherently funny about trying out Saitama's workout routine and having it actually work.

Lastly, and most importantly, she had to figure out some kind of quirk training that wouldn't leave her exhausted for days on end. After arriving home from her first day at UA and shoving aside the awkwardness of her day creeping up on her, she had sat down and made an honest to god _mind-map _about what she knew of her quirk so far. It was laughable, really. Nonetheless, as a former office worker, her organizational skills had been one of her only redeeming qualities. Having a piece of paper to take notes on assured her that she could still put those skills to use by creating and managing her own schedule.

Currently, the words 'energy drain' were circled urgently, right next to the estimated amount of time she could hold her quirk. When she had first come back from the hospital and nudged her quirk to activate in her room, the chains had shot off in all directions as if they weren't sure where to go or what to do. Megumi was pretty sure she had blacked out for a few seconds before coming back to her senses and realizing that the chains had started crumbling.

The ones she had let go off in her slight panic had lost their glow, turning to dust on the floor pitifully. Meanwhile the ones she held on to still stood proud and strong. She had felt another fainting spell incoming with the way they seemed to sap away her energy. Letting them go had been the only way to dispel them. It had made a strange sense of guilt and sadness well up within her, seeing her chains turn into ashes.

Now that she could think back to her experience and analyze what had happened, it made her burn with curiosity concerning why the energy she expended into those beautiful chains disappeared into thin air, never to be recovered again. She had been so exhausted that the weariness had carried through to the next day.

Somehow, it didn't sit well with her. It didn't feel _right. _In fact, her quirk gave off a sickly impression, draining more energy than it was supposed to. Trying to compensate in place of something that just _wasn't there_…

Grinding her teeth, she tried to fight off the festering unease. Dark and foreboding, it slinked and crawled in every corner, fretfully drowning her in a sea of trepidation.

Megumi took a deep breath, clearing her mind and focusing on her objective. The Sports Festival.

Realistically speaking, there was no way she could achieve a huge improvement in only two weeks. But nonetheless, if she played her cards right, she could work something out with what she had. So far she deemed it best to reserve quirk training for the end of the day when she was done with her daily exercises. She had a feeling if she messed around with her quirk right off the bat, she'd be unable to move her body.

What else could she do? Megumi thought long and hard about it. What else was she missing…

She snapped her fingers in realization. _'A training buddy!'_

But where could she get one of those? All Sports Festival participants only had morning classes to attend until the fateful day arrived. They could do whatever they pleased with the rest of their days. No way would anyone want a training buddy when they were all going to be competing against each other. Megumi shook her head ruefully. _'Ashido and Asui will probably prefer individual training. Who do I know, who could potentially be my… oh, no. Maybe…? No way.'_

Well, she had been around him long enough to know what his answer would be. But on the other hand, it was worth a shot, right?

She pulled out her phone, scrolling through her contacts before tapping on the one nickname that had like 10 pulsing hearts around it. Bringing the phone to her ear, she waited in anticipation. He wouldn't be petty enough to ignore her call, right?

He picked up. She felt her heart jump. _'He actually picked up?!'_

"Hey Todoroki! I was thinking-"

_Click._

Lowering the phone from her ear, she stared at her screen blankly. "…he hung up."

So he _was _that petty. _'Maybe I should count myself lucky that he hasn't blocked me yet.'_

She sighed, throwing her phone away and onto her bed. The rest of the night was spent scribbling in her notebook, the mind-map expanding into infinite branches.

* * *

Mina liked to think that she had finally succeeded in befriending 1-A's infamous snob, Megumi.

But the more she spent time with her, the more she was starting to think that the blonde didn't really deserve to be called a snob anymore.

Ever since that fateful afternoon when Megumi had extended a hand of friendship towards Tsuyu and Mina by suggesting they eat outside together, the three of them had established a routine of sorts. After their morning classes were over, they would go outside to eat somewhere before going off on their own ways to train for the upcoming Sports Festival.

To her glee, Megumi was surprisingly easy to talk to. She would nod along to Mina's stories and Tsuyu's quips, not contributing much to the conversation but going along with it nonetheless. Her aura had mellowed out somewhat, though she sometimes gave off an intense feeling when she fell too deep into her thoughts. They could tell that she had somewhat changed since the USJ Incident took place, but didn't want to pry too much considering the blonde would still flinch whenever anyone mentioned it.

It never failed to amaze her how Megumi had turned into such a silent yet determined individual all of a sudden. She felt like she was hanging out with a completely different girl!

Mina was a social person. She genuinely enjoyed helping and encouraging people. Her friendly and generally out-going attitude was something that came naturally to her. She loved making new friends and made it a mission to befriend even those who seemed introverted at first sight. So when she had first tried interacting with the Airashi and expected a greeting in return, she was in for a nasty surprise.

Megumi had sneered, snatching away her hand from Mina's and wiping it on her uniform. _"Don't touch me, peasant. Actually, don't even talk to me. Not with that dreadful color on you."_

It had been such a long while since anyone had ever made fun of how she looked that she had been frozen in place, totally caught off guard. Megumi had walked past her without a second glance, latching onto Todoroki's shoulder as he left the classroom.

To think that girl was the same as the one she now regularly ate lunch with was unthinkable. Thankfully, Mina wasn't someone who could hold grudges. Besides, she had heard worse insults before. Even if she tried, she couldn't hate the current Megumi.

The blonde would come into morning classes looking like she had run a marathon, going into the bathrooms to change out of her sweaty shirt half an hour before homeroom started. Whenever they went out for food, she would tell them to go ahead and that she would catch up, only to arrive 15 minutes late panting and out of breath. Mina knew that Megumi was taking her exercise for the Sports Festival seriously, but she hoped she wouldn't push herself to the brink of over exhaustion.

Then again, Tsuyu would come to class every day looking like she had spent the night in a garden pond. Sometimes she felt like her drive to succeed wildly differed from theirs.

Maybe she should be taking a page out of Megumi's book and make a workout plan of her own…

* * *

So far, Megumi's grueling training was going okay…ish.

The first few days were hell on earth. It was as if her lungs were being punctured by a hundred miniature needles. Her muscles and joints seemed to have the same consistency as rusty metal and she was starting to develop a horrible migraine, centered right at two distinct spots on her head. It would have been enough to make Colby give up- but Megumi _needed _to do this. If she couldn't deal with this much, then what was the point in trying to become a hero?

The pain lessened as her body started getting used to the exercises, though the massive headache would plague her incessantly every minute of every day.

It must have been noticeable, because one of the older maids had offered her a glass of water and some painkillers with an amicable smile on her face. Megumi had returned her smile, grabbing the painkillers but not opening them. After the maid had excused herself out of the room, Megumi had dropped her smile.

She had ended up flushing both the water and the pills down the toilet. Everyone in the mansion was undoubtedly working for that woman: one could never be too careful.

The '100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 squats daily' thing had went absolutely terrible at first. She felt like her tendons were going to snap like string cheese or her humerus bones would rip straight through her elbows whenever she made it to number 30. How was she supposed to do 100 of all these daily when she couldn't even handle 30? _'Bold of me to assume I could handle One Punch Man's daily workout.' _She resigned herself to doing only 30 of each until she got used to the burning sensation and added rope climbing to her plan instead. There was something she really wanted to try, but couldn't until her grip strength was strong enough.

Her quirk training was a lot less intense in comparison, since most of it consisted of her theorizing about how she could use her chains most effectively. Although, she would still end up on the floor having drained every last bit of her energy. Strangely enough her time limit seemed to climb up bit by bit the worse her headache got. Recently she'd been working on altering the shape and size of her chains to a suitable degree. The smaller and thinner they were, the more she could keep using her quirk until eventually tiring out.

Before going to bed, Megumi made sure to try some yoga moves she still remembered doing as Colby. Anything to lessen the pain in her muscles.

'_A week and a half left- I need to keep going.'_

* * *

Momo stared out of the window from her seat in the library, watching in rapt attention as Airashi completed her 4th lap around the school.

Wheezing and stumbling, the blonde continued jogging onwards for another lap without breaks in-between. Surely that couldn't be healthy? Momo found herself losing focus on the stacks of chemistry books on her table every time she caught a glimpse of wavy blonde hair passing by. It was, quite honestly, a disconcerting sight to behold.

The Airashi she knew would have never in a billion years spent her time _training _of all things.

The first few times she had seen her jogging around nearby, Momo had thought she was starting to hallucinate. Had Airashi finally gone off the deep end? Especially after that thorough scolding she had given that general studies student, her words sounding like a lecture shockingly similar to that of a disappointed parent's (well, until the cursing started). The Incident at USJ seemed to have unlocked some kind of hidden potential within her, the roaring dedication she exuded towards her training routine burning hotter than the sun. While walking by a jogging Iida, who was presumably training for the Sports Festival as well, she had briefly mentioned Airashi during their talk to make sure she wasn't actually seeing things.

Iida had taken a big swig from his water bottle before cheerfully replying, "Indeed! It is very admirable of Airashi-san to train so hard for this year's Sports Festival with such conviction! But in a battle of speed, I shall not lose." And he had sped off with his engine legs, as if his determination had somehow been renewed by that revelation.

Momo's own preparation consisted of reading and memorizing every single useful chemical and atomic compound she could find within the UA library's science books. The notes she had taken filled up 5 whole folders so far with no end to it. And she had even more of them to look into back home. It was a necessary evil if she planned on using her quirk the smartest way she could. After all, despite her quirk's flexibility, there was a limit to how many creations she could make before she ran out of fat lipids to break down into other material. Her way of training was wildly different from other people considering she had to maintain her body fat in order to use her abilities.

She was also aware that Airashi had never bothered with physical training either, due to her quirk being a long-range one. She was quite similar to Sero in that aspect, both of them displaying impressive gymnastic moves and capturing their opponent with their tape and chains respectively. Compared to Sero, Airashi would tire out a lot sooner and the glowing capture weapons she created out of thin air weren't permanent unlike his tape. That was a huge reason as to why she tended to sit back on the sidelines and stay passive in emergency situations until she was required to use her quirk: not that Momo understood how she could just do nothing in the face of danger.

Then again, Airashi had saved Midoriya from possibly becoming a mere stain on the pavement without any hesitation. Her chains had greatly suppressed the impact of the Nomu's punch.

As someone who tended to devise plans and strategies beforehand, Momo liked to consider not only the quirks and abilities but also the individual personalities of her classmates in case they were required to work as a team. Airashi had never expressed interest in being a team player, which was particularly perplexing considering she would most likely be a support or rescue type hero more than anything. Power types such as Todoroki, Bakugou or Kirishima could undoubtedly go solo without problems, but Airashi could only hold on to her opponent for a limited time. She would need a partner who could neutralize the target before she exhausted her quirk. To Momo's appreciation, Airashi had grown a lot more approachable in the past few days. The same couldn't be said about Todoroki, but she supposed that he was an entirely different matter.

Momo looked up from her books once again, setting down her pencil to see what was happening down below. Airashi stood in her UA gym uniform, a towel thrown around her shoulders and expressing a friendly smile as she talked with the group of girls who had gathered around her. Raising an eyebrow, Momo observed as they offered her food and drinks with blushing faces.

'_Aren't they general studies students?'_

Shaking her head in disbelief, Momo went back to studying her books with restored enthusiasm. Now she understood how Iida had felt seeing the once arrogant princess work harder than ever.

* * *

Trying to climb up a rope was a lot more difficult than it looked.

Army soldiers and Special Forces in movies made it look super easy, but Megumi's noodle arms could barely lift her 5m off the ground before she unceremoniously plummeted back onto the gym mattress down below. The Original had been pretty flexible due to the ballet and gymnastics classes she had undertaken as a kid: Megumi found that she could do cartwheels, handstands and splits with frightening ease. However, simple flexibility did little to aid her in exercises requiring actual physical strength.

UA's gym was unlike anything she had ever seen before. First of all, it was separate from other buildings and was absolutely _gigantic. _There were smaller outdoors training areas right outside, where she had seen a few students using the space for their own workout sessions. The inside of the gym was filled to the brim with every single equipment in existence and as Kirishima would so eloquently put it, they oozed with manliness. She had first found her way here when a lazy thought went through her mind around the time she had first started jogging for exercise. What if she utilized a treadmill instead of running laps around the school and town like a crazed fitness fanatic?

Unfortunately for her, despite the abundance of tools and equipments, there was not a single treadmill anywhere in sight. But there were many other useful things she could put to use.

She still had more than a week to train for the Festival and jogging had helped her adjust to her new routine immensely. Every day she would increase the running distance just a little more, and every day she could feel herself having less side stitches and higher tolerance for the burning in her lungs.

The only problem now was that her leg game was stronger than her arm game. That would just not do.

Her experience with the pull-up bars had went something like this: she had jumped up to grasp on to the metal bar with both hands, feet dangling above the ground uselessly. Then, she had strained to bend her elbows to pull herself up- before a loud _POP _noise alerted her to the fact that _maybe _the pull-up bars shouldn't be her first choice if she wanted to keep her arms intact.

Rope climbing was definitely better and had not much of a risk of dislocating her shoulders. Though, her bare hands tended to end up red and swollen from the friction burns she received while sliding back down.

Biting her lip and staring at the rope in annoyance, Megumi wiped away some sweat on her temple. After catching her breath, she stood before the rope again, trying to calculate its distance to the wall across from her.

Then, she proceeded to grab the rope firmly before taking a running jump at the wall.

With both feet planted firmly on the wall's surface, she kicked herself off. At the same time, she let go of the rope only to capture it once again, this time at a higher point. She continued climbing higher with that method, sliding back down when she lost her momentum.

The pain of blisters on her hand was nothing compared to the pride she felt at having climbed double the height she normally could.

'_A momentum. That's all I need.' _Her quirk quivered shyly, the energy excitedly pulsating just underneath her skin. The chains didn't materialize, yet they diligently followed her every thought and movement like students taking notes from a teacher.

* * *

Purple eyes narrowed in suspicion.

She didn't so much as acknowledge the wariness he gave off, sitting down on the bench next to him.

He avoided looking at her. Didn't even ask what she was here for. It was safe to assume that she had come here to get back at him for his declaration of war on 1-A, wasn't it? If that was the case, he had no intentions of taking it back. Hitoshi would show those arrogant pricks in the hero course that they weren't any better than anyone else just because they happened to have flashy quirks.

Airashi might have fooled everyone else with her recent behavior, but he knew that deep down she was still the same as those smug idiots.

He had addressed her in particular that day, hoping to demonstrate to everyone how being in the hero course didn't mean they were inherently good people. Of course he knew that UA staff couldn't be bribed with money nor prestige. Anyone who had tried had ended up mocked and ridiculed on the corner of magazine pages due to information leaks, UA making sure to show that attempting bribery would have its consequences. Despite that, he couldn't possibly fathom how they could have allowed such a stupid floozy into the hero course when she wasn't even capable of common human decency.

What he hadn't expected was for her to lash out at him with such intensity. His full name coming out of her mouth had made him take a step back, apprehensive that she actually knew his full name despite them never interacting with each other before. Under the pressure of those teal eyes (had they been glowing? Hitoshi had felt something in him shrinking back in alarm), he had felt like a kid getting admonished in front of all those people. Maybe it would have been a humiliating experience, if it weren't for the fact that he could care less about what anyone thought of him.

He had always been avoided due to the nature of his quirk. It wasn't anything new.

Airashi bent forward, elbows on her knees as she stared at the same spot he was looking at. Trying to see what was so interesting about it that it had him staring for so long. "I asked a few people where you go during your lunch breaks, if you're wondering."

His brows furrowed. Some of his classmates had been getting unnecessarily friendly with the Airashi.

She cleared her throat. "I came here to apologize. For what happened a week and a half ago. I shouldn't have said all those things without considering the time and place. I'm sorry."

He turned his head, finally looking at her. She was in her gym uniform, sweaty and red in the face with her hair sticking out everywhere, despite the high ponytail she had wrangled it into. The bandages around her head were gone. Her skin had turned slightly darker and sunburnt, a big contrast to its previously pale and unblemished appearance.

Now that she finally had his attention, she also turned to look at him straight in the eyes. "I know it's a bit late for that now, but I wanted to do this before we face off against each other during the Sports Festival. I let my emotions get the best of me. I assure you the same won't happen during the Festival."

Hitoshi zeroed in on the implications in that sentence. Could it be…?

Airashi stood up, draping her towel back onto her shoulder and grabbing her water bottle. "Anyway, that's all I came here for. See you at the Sports Festival."

He stood up as well, teeth grinding in vexation. What was she playing at? Who had put her up to this- her classmates? Her precious crush? Were they getting a kick out of this too? He had seen all kinds of people acting nice to him while simultaneously shit-talking behind his back. Was she making fun of him for even daring to challenge the oh so strong class 1-A? Giving him her heartfelt apologies, as if _he _had been the villain in that situation- it made him _sick._

"I don't need your apology. I meant what I said. I'm going to knock you all off of your high horses."

She eyed him up and down, scrutinizing his expression as if searching for something. Her lips twitched upwards slightly. "I'll be looking forward to it then."

Even after she left, Hitoshi continued standing and drilling holes into the spot she had been sitting on. He was seething in annoyance, something not many managed to do. Her mere presence put him on edge- parading around like she was a better person now, as if she hadn't been the most disliked person in UA's entire First Year classes. How could people forget the way she had been treating others? Did being in the hero course automatically entitle her to that right?

Or was it because her quirk wasn't villainous, unlike his?

He couldn't deny that he was jealous. What made it worse was that despite the jealousy, he also couldn't deny the appreciation somewhere in his heart. Her unwavering stare, telling him upfront that she wouldn't let emotions get the best of her- the hidden threat that she would be taking him dead serious if they happened to be opponents.

* * *

Only a few days left until the Sports Festival. She was already shaking with both fear and excitement.

Throughout the two weeks they were given, she had trained until she vomited. Megumi was aware that if she wanted to improve even more, she would have to continue her exercises even after the Sports Festival: and if that meant getting more acquainted with her quirk, there was hardly any reason not to.

Flexing her hands, she contemplated the thin chains hanging from the tips of her fingers.

To her massive convenience, her room was enormous. There wasn't much restricting her from moving around and she was provided with enough space to use her quirk. The pounding headache was something she had gradually gotten used to, although it still bothered her that painkillers she got from the pharmacy didn't seem to have any effects on it. She had an idea as to why it wouldn't go away, but she couldn't be sure yet…

Her chains had once again created a maze inside her room- however, this time, _she _was in control.

Megumi took deep breaths, her control still shaky. The chains wobbled and continued snaking around gleefully, like children who had been let out to play outside. She was reminded once again that her quirk gave off a distinctly immature feeling. It lashed out whenever she tried to prod at it too forcefully, yet it still clung to her knowing it had nowhere else to go. Like a wounded animal, it would shy away from her until she managed to coax it into materializing. It made her often wonder how the Original had ever gotten anything done with such a willful quirk, the chains crying out in protest whenever she had to let them go.

But at times like this, when she simply just let them explore their surroundings… it was the most peaceful she would ever be since finding herself in an entirely different dimension.

These chains had been with her since the day she had arrived. They were her closest friends and allies.

She felt incredibly stupid when she thought about it. Quirks were a part of people, not things they could casually befriend. And yet, Megumi couldn't think of them as mindless powers. Not when the chains snaking up her arms and playfully caressing her hair felt so _alive._

The door to her room creaked open the tiniest bit. Megumi had her eyes closed concentrating on her chains, not giving any indication as to having noticed the noise.

Ringlets of blonde hair peeked out, big blue eyes shining in awe. A small chubby hand nervously reached out to one of the chains, only to retract when they shivered. Megumi smirked in amusement, holding back from laughing. She had noticed that she had earned herself a peeping tom whenever she trained with her quirk and it delighted her to no end.

She cracked her eyes open. Teal met blue.

Her younger sister's face flushed beet red before she hurriedly scampered off. Megumi laughed uncontrollably, her chains closing the door with a twitch of her fingers. The chains tittered and chortled, finding as much entertainment in the girl's reactions as she did. One would think that after being caught countless times, she'd be more subtle with her curiosity.

Megumi sobered up right after, a twinge in her heart.

'_I never had any siblings before. It's… unusual.' _

She was beginning to get used to life as Megumi. It should have made her happy, really. Ashido and Asui were wonderful people who had made space for her in their friend group. Nobody in class 1-A was particularly rude to her, not counting the cautious looks she received sometimes. General studies students generally went out of their way to avoid her, yet Komachi and her friends never forgot to greet her when they saw each other. She could evade her parents easily since they weren't home most of the time.

However, she still couldn't shake away the loneliness that took hold of her every now and then.

'_I'm the only one who knows…'_

She was the only one who knew that the Original was gone. That the Megumi who stood before them was an imposter in her shell. Was she deceiving them? She didn't like to think of it that way. There had been no other choice. The Original hadn't even _existed _in the My Hero Academia she had read and watched. There was no point in trying to preserve a plot that had already been altered by one little difference. Besides, how much would she be changing anyway? She wasn't a main character and as long as she didn't mess with main character business, everything would be fine.

The people she interacted with on a daily basis didn't feel like mere characters anymore. Perhaps that was why the worry incessantly gnawing at her subconscious became unbearable. One single mistake during a fight against villains and it might very well cost someone's life.

Everything happening to her was real. Her every action could have repercussions. She would rather not think about that.

'_One thing at a time. I have a Sports Festival to survive through.'_

* * *

**A/N:**

**Hello friends. ****I actually have no idea how this chapter turned out, it's double the world count I usually write. XD**

**Thank you for all your lovely reviews! They put a smile on my face.**

**I'm going to be writing this story based on the manga. But I might also make a chapter or two based on the movies in the future, hehe. I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't sneak Bakugou into this chapter, but the manga had like one panel showing 1-A's training weeks before the Sports Festival so I had to improvise hard lmao. Basically the reason this chapter turned out so long is because I wanted to show that everything is happening within a 2 week span. **

**Megumi's gonna be meeting a lot of characters during the Festival. And I hope I can fit in a Todoroki POV somewhere in the next chapters cuz he's still gonna be our favorite edgelord until Midoriya punches some sense into him. :D Also yes, this **_'font' _**is basically everyone thinking the same thing simultaneously.**


	7. Ready, Set

**Disclaimer: **Horikoshi Kouhei has all rights to My Hero Academia! You know, I'm running out of ways to phrase these disclaimers. Can we just skip this part?

* * *

_**\- Chapter 6 -**_

**Ready, Set**

* * *

…Fuck.

'_I think I'm lost.'_

In her defense, there were three different stadiums, each with interconnecting buildings and corridors which (mind you) looked exactly the same_. _She had changed into her gym uniform at home, not keen on using the locker rooms at UA where a bunch of other people could see her naked. The security had ushered her through the back door without really telling her where the hell she was supposed to go. Though she could hardly blame them when over a dozen reporters were camping outside, ready to storm into the premises.

Megumi had wandered around aimlessly, trying to find a familiar face or a teacher or _anything _in the hopes of asking them where 1-A's prep room was supposed to be. Weren't there like, supposed to be signs and stuff around here? She had made sure to come earlier than the specified time so that she could mentally prepare herself for the competitive atmosphere. Unfortunately there would be nothing to compete against if she didn't hurry up and find that goddamned prep room.

She could see outside through the glass panels on the walls of some of the corridors. People were starting to fill up the seats in the stadium, cameramen setting up their equipment and getting ready to air the Sports Festival on live. It made Megumi shiver, thinking that literally thousands- no, perhaps the entire country would be watching. Except for a select few, like her asshole parents who were wholly uninterested in the entire event. She scoffed at the idea of them just sitting around in their respective dungeons, too busy making other people's lives miserable to care.

Her steps came to an abrupt halt when someone rounded the corner with an excited skip to their step, not looking where they were going. Megumi avoided the collision by stepping aside immediately, moving so fast she almost fell on her face due to whiplash. Soft hands grasped her wrists to steady her, a bashful giggle informing her that her assailant was in fact female. She steadied her on her feet and Megumi physically felt the energy radiating off of her in waves. "So sorry! It's just, today's _such _a big day! I can hardly contain myself."

Wide and curious eyes checked her out from top to bottom. Meanwhile, Megumi noted with a jolt that the girl before her had royal blue irises with white pupils- similar to Megumi's own, minus the teal color and slit pupils. Flustered, she struggled to remember where she had seen that long periwinkle hair and impish grin before. _'She looks so familiar… wait. She might just be my savior!'_

Megumi let out a chuckle of her own. "It's no problem at all- the Sports Festival has me pretty jumpy as well. Thanks for catching me or I might have needed Recovery Girl before I even got to fight." She then confessed, with her cheeks burning from the shame of having to admit it, "Actually, I'm a bit lost. Would you happen to know where the prep rooms for first years are located?"

The girl blinked, before a bright smile lit up her face. She captured Megumi's hands in her own smaller ones, swinging them up and down enthusiastically. She was a lot shorter than Megumi- then again, Megumi was pretty tall for a girl her age at 172cm.

She tried her best not to break out in a nervous sweat._ 'I don't know what's going on right now, but wow she's like a puppy.' _Royal blue eyes were transfixed on her in interest. "Oh my, you're a first year! Man, you must be so much more excited than I am! I remember my first Sports Festival, it was so nerve-racking having to fight in front of so many people and competing against so many of my friends! Kyaa, don't worry, it's gonna be so great and so exciting and so much _fun!"_

'…_Fun? Well, that's one way to look at it.' _Megumi laughed awkwardly. "Yes. Um, about what I was asking you before…"

She gasped and ceased swinging their hands around. "Ah, sorry again! I get distracted really easily." She giggled, letting go of Megumi's hands. Megumi flexed them in an effort to get some feeling back into them. Her grip was strong for such a small girl. "You must have mistakenly entered through the wrong entrance! I guess the security was too swamped to inform you. This is the Third-Year stage: the First-Year stage is right _that _way, up the stairs, through corridor F-15, leading to building A…"

Megumi committed the description to her memory, bowing in gratitude. "Thank you so much. I'm really bad with directions, you just saved my life."

A slap on the back almost sent her lurching forward, but she kept her balance. "Oh you! No need to thank me. Good luck at the Sports Festival!"

Smiling back with equal optimism (albeit a lot more tuned down), Megumi waved a hand in farewell as she started moving down the hallway. "Good luck to you as well! If I could watch the Third-Years, I'd gladly cheer for you."

* * *

She watched the blonde run toward her destination, disappearing down the hallway. A face morphed through the wall beside her, looking at her with raised eyebrows. "Toying with first years, Nejire? Tsk tsk."

She pouted. "I wasn't _toying _with her, Mirio. Where is Tamaki?"

"Ah, you know. Here and there. Possibly inside a closet riding out his anxiety- the usual. But you're changing the subject."

Nejire was positively beaming. "Really, I was just pointing out some directions to her. Why didn't you tell me we have such cute underclassmen this year?"

* * *

Megumi slid open the doors to 1-A's prep room- only to startle and shut them back closed as soon as she saw a pair of heterochromatic eyes owlishly blinking back at her.

She ended up not entering the room until a few others started arriving. She hoped she didn't garner too many strange looks sitting on the floor next to the prep room's door in a lotus position, desperately trying to meditate herself into a calm state of mind. As soon as Ashido and Asui nudged her awake (because of course she had fallen asleep slouching forward), she entered the room with them. Still, she couldn't shake off the restlessness tugging at her heart. Her energy writhed and curled in distress and she fought hard to placate it, lest it ended up manifesting her chains spontaneously. That was especially difficult, considering the stubborn headache that just would not go away.

Cracking her skull open just to see what was inside that made it ache so damn bad was a dangerously tempting idea.

However, she knew that she wasn't the only one experiencing the nervous jitters. Uraraka had been pacing around for a while, only stopping once Asui approached her, offering her a bottle of water in case she was feeling queasy. Mineta was writing the kanji for numbers on one of his palms as if counting down their eventual doom. Ashido sat at a table together with Yaoyorozu, Ojiro and Tokoyami, Kirishima occasionally chiming in to participate in their conversation.

Koda and Shoji were farther in the back, most likely discussing how they could utilize their quirks during the Festival. Sato and Kaminari were having a heated discussion about something so amazingly superficial that she couldn't understand a single word coming out of their mouths. Midoriya was standing off to the side near the entrance, taking deep breaths and probably psyching himself up with a heroic inner monologue. The only two people who didn't seem fazed by the atmosphere in the least were Bakugou and Todoroki.

Megumi herself decided to dedicate the rest of her waiting time to stretching out her limbs and working out some cricks in her neck. _'Mr. Casual Overachiever and Mr. Delinquent Nerd don't even look like they care. To be fair, why should they? Todoroki is the type to lose on purpose just to spite Endeavour. And Bakugou's head is so far up his ass that the thought of losing doesn't even cross his mind.'_

Ashido called her name from where she was sitting with the others. "Ne, Megumi. Don't you wish we coulda worn our costumes too?"

"They're not allowed in the interest of fairness," Ojiro stated noncommittally.

Megumi shrugged her shoulders. She didn't really care either way. "On the bright side, you can show off your quirk without having to worry about what kinda impression your costume gives off."

Yaoyorozu slumped slightly in her seat. "That's true." She mumbled ruefully.

Just then Iida came barreling into the room, his whole body vibrating in impatience. His booming voice could've shattered windows, quite honestly. "Is everyone good and ready? The event's about to begin!"

Megumi swallowed the knot in her throat, shakily straightening up. Even the headache pounding away at her brain couldn't overpower the excitement she was feeling. She wasn't sure about the fun part or whatever else the third year girl from before had mentioned- all she knew was this was going to be an opportunity for her to prove to herself that becoming a hero was not something out of her reach. That she was _so close, _closer than she had ever been as Colby. It was time to test her own resolve.

Her lips curled at the thought of slanted grey eyes looking down on her in contempt, red lips slanted upwards in the imitation of a smile. A shitty imitation. Barely passable. A sneer formed on her face at the thought. _'You're gonna need more than that second-rate theatre act to lure me into your traps. I'm not your convenient little toy anymore. I know exactly what you are.'_

From the corner of her eye she saw Todoroki stand up from his spot and walk over to Midoriya. Megumi couldn't help but admire how the freckled boy didn't shrink away. She knew first-hand how intimidating Todoroki could be (especially when he literally gave you the cold shoulder). Their conversation started out as mere whispers, but eventually grew loud enough to attract attention.

"I will beat you." Todoroki declared.

She shook her head and scoffed, continuing to do her stretches as her fellow classmates started whispering and muttering to each other in surprise. Bakugou had a sour expression. No doubt about it, he had been listening in on their conversation ever since All Might's name was mentioned. _'Pff he looks like he sucked on a lemon. Oh wait he always looks like that.'_

Kirishima walked up to them, trying to diffuse the situation. "Hey man, why pick a fight now? We're about to go on…"

Todoroki shrugged off the redhead with an aggressive shake of his arm. Megumi frowned. Kirishima was one of the few people who had taken her new behavior in stride and treated her with genuine goodwill. She didn't like seeing him get dismissed in such a hostile manner. "I really don't care. I'm not pretending to be anyone's friend here."

Several eyes zoomed in on her. For what? To gauge her reaction? She threw up her hands in a 'I have nothing to do with this' gesture, her face the picture of innocence. _'I mean, ouch? Kinda? Not like we were friends in the first place.'_

"Everyone… even the kids from other courses are aiming for the top. And I'm- well, let me say this. I'm _not _gonna fall behind." Midoriya countered. Megumi held back from whistling at the chilling glare Todoroki was shooting at him. "I'm going for it too. With everything I've got!"

"…Right."

She would've really loved observing everyone's reactions and all, but the deafening voice coming from outside signaled for them to come out to the stadium. "Gather around, media! It's time once again to see the high schoolers you know and love revel in their youth…! It's UA's Sports Festival- Everybody — Are you ready?!"

A loud chorus of _YEEEEAAAAHHH _shook the ground.

Megumi's breath stuttered as they all started walking outside collectively. Her heart wildly thumping against her ribcage and the blood rushing to her ears were making her lightheaded. _'Oh my god. This is actually happening. That sounded like a few thousand people out there- fuck. Don't think about it. Keep it cool.'_

* * *

Yuka stuck out her tongue in concentration, one finger on her metal ring as she peeped through the keyhole.

She could see the key slowly moving to the door towards her. She focused on steadily dragging it closer- floating closer and closer until it eventually dipped low and slipped from under the door to her feet. Squealing in delight, Yuka picked up the key and promptly opened the door to the room before shutting it back closed again.

Grabbing the remote from where it was placed on her brother's nightstand, she turned on the TV and searched for the right channel.

'_Onii-chan is at prep school. Mother and Father are at work. Nanny thinks I'm sleeping.' _A victorious smirk formed on her lips. The TV's screen flickered once more, before her finger ceased assaulting the arrow button on the remote. There it was. The Sports Festival stream!

A close-up of the participating classes came on. Yuka leaned forward, blue eyes locked on the screen.

* * *

She walked right behind everyone else, her eyes squinting at the bright sunlight. They widened in awe at the sight that greeted her.

The stadium was _enormous._

The amount of reporters and pro heroes filling up the First-Year stage's seats was just insane. There were separate sections in the audience that were empty for students to sit and watch the fights later. If she happened to look to her right or left, people from other departments and classes were also entering the stadium. They were mere ants in comparison to the sheer size of the whole arena.

Present Mic's deafening voice echoed through the clearing, "It's UA's Sports Festival! The one time each year, when our fledgling heroes compete in a ruthless grand battle! First up… you know who I'm talking about… the miraculous rising stars who brushed off a villain attack with their steely willpower…!"

And just like that, the excitement in her stomach turned into dread. _'No… tell me you're not doing this to us Sensei…'_

"The First-Years of the hero course…!"

Who was she kidding? No amount of praying was gonna stop that man from further antagonizing the other classes and mounting shitloads of expectations on class 1-A.

"IT'S CLASS A!"

The audience exploded in cheers and applause. Any enthusiasm Megumi might have been feeling before had shriveled up and died. She could _feel _the glares aimed at their backs. Especially with how the other classes were introduced in comparison to 1-A.

Kirishima laughed nervously. "Wow, they're really praising us to the sky. I'm getting nervous now... you, Bakugou?"

The latter looked pleased, grinning like a demon. "Nope, just gets me pumped up."

"Following class B, it's classes C, D and E of General Studies! And here come the support courses, F, G and H! And the business course…"

Yikes. He was really doing them dirty.

Massaging her temples in annoyance, she decided that there was not much she could do about that. Present Mic was only doing his job, giving the media what they wanted. Their class had been at the center of controversy ever since the USJ Incident and no good reporter worth their salt would pass up a chance to write an article on that. That didn't mean it wasn't annoying. The crowd was obviously playing favorites. As Colby, she had known very well how vexing it had been when teachers had favorites.

Her eyes snapped open when a sudden thought entered her mind. If _this _is what they were going through as First-Years at a Sports Festival, how did pro heroes deal with the general public? She couldn't even imagine the immense pressure put on them, especially the top heroes who were constantly competing for first place.

She looked at the ground, eyebrows furrowed. _'Being a hero… Is it really that easy?'_

The sudden spike of energy in her gut made her cringe. She could feel it bubbling up underneath her skin, begging to be let out. But she couldn't, not yet. Ashido looked up in concern at the strangled noise she made. "You good?"

Megumi shook her head in a 'yes' motion ever so slowly. The pinkette didn't probe much further, though that was largely attributed to the fact that Midnight had strutted onto the stage before them with a whip in one hand. "Now for the athlete's oath!"

Tokoyami would've most likely been raising an eyebrow if he hadn't been a bird. "R-rated? Should she really be teaching at a high school?"

"Silence!" Midnight made a show of whipping at the air, the sound resounding throughout the stadium. "My tenure is perfectly on the level! Now, your student representative is," Huh, wait, Megumi could've sworn she was forgetting something. "from class 1-A, Bakugou Katsuki!"

…Well.

Maybe she should get used to the second-hand embarrassment she felt whenever Bakugou so much as opened his mouth. If it was going to be such a frequent occurrence then she might as well resign herself to it.

She could feel the rest of class 1-A radiate the same existential pain as she did watching the blonde boy climb up that stage.

"I'm gonna place first."

Wow. Really now.

"Aw man, I knew he was gonna!" Kirishima lamented.

Bakugou sneered down at them. "You'll all make fantastic stepping stones, I'm sure."

'_You know what? I'm not even gonna bother.' _She only hoped that they could get on with the event soon so this whole debacle could be forgotten. Her quirk was buzzing along to the heated atmosphere and she wasn't sure if she could restrain it any longer. Ever since she had started training her chains her quirk had become weirdly energetic. Sometimes she wondered whether she was just a glorified babysitter and not a hero apprentice. She also already knew that there would be an obstacle race, so that might have attributed to the liveliness of her quirk. But she had to bide her time until the right moment presented itself for her to use her chains, else she'd tire out far earlier than she had planned.

She flexed her hands, subtly moving closer to the front of the crowd.

"Onto the preliminaries as they're called! Lot's of fine folk end up choking on their tears here every year. And this year's first round of destiny is…!"

'Obstacle Race' popped up in huge letters on a big holographic screen. Megumi tapped her foot on the ground impatiently, shifting from side to side. _'Get on with it! Ugh I hate theatrics.'_

"…This!"

Huge gates opened up in the wall right in front of them. She rolled her shoulders back, warming up.

"It's a race between all 11 classes! The course makes a nearly 4km ring around this stadium."

The buzzing in her ears drowned out everything, background noise fading into nothingness. The only thing she focused on was her own heartbeat, steady and strong.

"We always sing about our freedom on campus, fufufu… meaning you're free to do anything, _anything, _so long as you remain within the course!"

Her pupils dilated, knees bending ever so unnoticeably. _'Anything? Huh.'_

"So let's get cracking… on your marks…"

She licked her lips and clenched her teeth. Her quirk goaded her on, roaring at her to _go. _

The light turned green.

"STAAAAAAAART!"

Her feet kicked her off the ground as she shot forward like a charging bull.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Welcome back. Thank you very much for favoriting and following. :)**

**I love your reviews and I read them all at least twice. XD **

**So it's time for the Sports Festival. To be very honest, it's not my favorite arc. I hope I can write the fighting scenes properly. Also, some of you guys really want to see Monoma haha. I promise he'll come on- eventually. I thought that I could include the obstacle race and the rest of the festival in one single chapter, but I thought wrong. Hopefully next chapter I can get on with it properly! Seriously, I was so disappointed once I realized the length of this chapter cuz I wanted to include so much more. Expect more action after this.**

**Fun fact, I had to look up how the Sports Festival even works cuz I had no idea that there were different stages for the first, second and third years respectively. And that's how the Nejire scene got conceived. **

**I see that you guys have questions and... well, all in due time. They will be answered. ;) **

**See you all next week! Time for me to write the rest of the Sports festival.**


	8. Go!

_**\- Chapter 7 -**_

**Go!**

* * *

She sprinted as if her life depended on it.

The starting gate was far too narrow for everyone to slip through easily. People were pushing and pulling at each other, some of them undoubtedly getting crushed in the process. Megumi definitely did not want to be among those who got squished to death in that clusterfuck of a blockage.

However, there was not much time to dwell on nor mourn the brave soldiers who had fallen, for she felt the biting cold racing in their direction before she saw it.

Her body instinctively recognized it as the same chill that would greet her whenever she so much as glanced at her desk neighbor. (Not that she could help it, Todoroki was prettier than any boy she had ever seen and it was kind of hard not to stare at such foreign features.) Nevertheless, she had become so used to his literal cold shoulder for the past few weeks that she could automatically feel the frost creeping up on her whenever she neared him. With a well-timed leap, she expertly avoided the ice encasing the ground beneath her feet.

Angry yelling ensued from all around her and for a moment she thought it was because she might have used a few heads as stepping stones here and there. Alas, it was just a bunch of students cursing at Todoroki for freezing their legs onto the ground. Not that she could blame them. She would've most likely done the same if she didn't have more pressing matters at hand: namely, getting into the Top 42.

'_No distractions. I need to keep moving.'_ She hadn't even broken a sweat yet. That was a huge improvement in comparison to when she had first started her training weeks ago.

It was mostly 1-A and a few 1-B students who had skillfully evaded Todoroki's surprise attack so far. She saw Yaoyorozu and Kirishima somewhere in the front, including Aoyama (somehow. He looked pretty constipated though.) Megumi dodged just in time as someone rocketed right past her, almost shoving her face-first onto the ground with the force he propelled himself onward with.

She shook herself back into focus, never once losing her current speed. _'Was that Bakugou?'_

Of course it was Bakugou. And he looked pissed as hell. "I ain't letting you get ahead that easy, Two-Face!"

What a cute rivalry. Would've been even cuter if it wasn't a public health hazard.

Taking deep breaths, Megumi readied herself for the next obstacles in line. She kept her eyes locked on to the gigantic robots awaiting them further in the distance. Her long hair felt heavy against her back, sweat starting to break out on her neck. It irritated her to no end.

Todoroki was still in the lead. That in itself wasn't a bad thing because she wasn't aiming to come in first- the problem was that she needed to be close enough to him during his fight against the robots so that she could reap the benefits of his quirk for what she had planned out in advance. There was a good reason for why she was spending all her stamina by sprinting right now, instead of reserving her speed for the minefield at the end of the race.

Mineta yelled some nonsense about something-something 'double-bluff' and something-something 'killer move' before he was unceremoniously sent flying into the distance by a robo-punch. Cringing (because _ouch _that's gotta hurt), Megumi took that as her cue to roll up her sleeves in preparation for what was to come.

Present Mic's voice crackled to life through the speakers again. "Every obstacle course needs obstacles! Starting with the first barrier, Robo Inferno!"

Most people recognized the robots as the villain-bots worth 0 points during the entrance exam. A bunch of other students almost choked on the sight. "Hold on, you're telling me the heroics kids had to fight those things?!"

She didn't stop running once she officially entered the Robo Inferno. Quite the opposite: she started increasing her speed, the muscles in her legs aching from the sheer effort she exerted. Her eyes darted between Todoroki and the giant robots slowly crawling toward him. Even her classmates, who had previously been far ahead of her, started falling back when the robots started attacking.

Megumi jumped and ducked in quick succession when metal arms came veering her way, eyes still on Todoroki. He was a few hundred meters ahead of her, but that shouldn't pose much of a problem. Thin chains wrapped around her forearms and they were _pleading, _itching with excitement. She grit her teeth, dodging another punch thrown her way. _'Come on Todoroki. Come on…!'_

With a single swing of his arm, Todoroki had the robots encased in ice and out of commission. They creaked and groaned, tilting to the side precariously. A grin made it on her face as her focus shifted to Kirishima and Tetsutetsu who were right on Todoroki's heels. _'Now!'_

"1-A's Todoroki has forged ahead and- wow, what is happening?! Airashi from the very same 1-A makes a bold move!"

Seafoam green filled her vision. The buzz of adrenaline coursing through her was unbearably potent. The countdown to her quirk flashed before her mind's eye before she brought her concentration back on the way her spiked boots stomped down on the ice, not letting her slide an inch. It had been a great idea to change out of her normal shoes for this occasion.

Long chains coiled around the limbs of the frozen robots, stubborn and predatory. She held them in place, every step she ran up on the metal contraption heavy enough to break someone's face. _'If I slip off here, I'll look like an idiot.' _And as she swung forward onto her next stepping stone, the chains curled tighter around the frozen metal until it splintered and shattered with a spectacularly loud crunching noise.

'_Surprisingly easy to shatter frozen metal.'_

The sound of metal pieces crumbling onto the ground came from behind her while she continued running forward, her chains destroying one frozen robot after another every time she swung onto another one.

"Incredible! Not only does it save her fellow students from getting crushed, but it actually clears out a path for them as well! She has thwarted Todoroki's attempt to block them off!"

…Wait.

She almost broke her neck when she whipped her head around, only to see a horde of students closing in from behind her, trampling on the graveyard of robots. She had expected Kirishima and Tetsutetsu (and speaking of them, their running expressions were both equally terrifying), but a whole swarm of them? _'Shit, I didn't think so many of them would come through there! No, calm down, there's still the ravine ahead.'_

"Aaaaand 1-A's Bakugou has abandoned the ground and vaulted over their heads! Smart move!"

Oh god she could _feel _the heat closing in from behind her. She squeezed her chains tightly in her hands- she couldn't let them go yet. But they were making it difficult for her to run. Painstakingly, she let go of the chains on her left arm. They crumbled into dust immediately and once again, she felt nauseous. _'I'm so sorry. I'll make it up to you later.' _She drew back the chains on her right to herself so they curled back around her arm instead of getting dragged through the mud as she ran.

Present Mic's voice rang in her ears like a buzzing fly. "If the first barrier was a cinch, then what about the second?! You fall and you're out! If you don't like that idea, maybe you can crawl! It's…!"

"The Fall." Megumi muttered to herself as her footsteps slowed.

Most of her classmates had already begun advancing, each with their own individual methods. Bakugou continued blasting himself into the air and she was honestly baffled at how he could keep that up for so long. If she ever attempted to use her quirk continuously for as long as he did, she was sure she'd be fried.

She sucked in a deep breath, concentrating on the chains wound around her arm. Her boots skidded on the ground as she came to a sudden stop.

Only to take a running start and leap off the nearest edge.

There were a few gasps from behind her. It was honestly comical. Gravity began tugging her down. Everything seemed to play out on slow motion as she brought her right arm forward mid-air, muscles twitching. She heard the blood rushing in her ears, syncing with her heartbeat. Her chains crooned in delight, starting to unravel.

She couldn't help but think that this was the coolest shit she had ever done.

The Fall was exactly what she needed to gain an advantage in the race.

'_All I need is a momentum.'_

The singular chain that was now attached to her wrist grew longer and longer, stretching out into the distance- until it eventually connected to a cliffside she had set her eyes on. The wind whipped at her face when she pulled on the chain, swinging her onward with ease.

It was exhilarating. Thrilling. She was _flying!_

With a few more swings, she had started getting used to the incredible sensation of falling. She descended downward, only for her chains to throw her into the air and release her, where she had enough time to swing her other arm to attach them to another cliff. She'd only been theorizing it for all those weeks, and having it actually _work _was just amazing. Her chains hummed their own tune, pleased at the praise.

Megumi got so into it that she started making Spider-Man poses, internally screaming at how fucking neat this whole experience turned out to be.

"Unbelievable- Airashi has caught up?! No- not only does she catch up, she also swipes the lead from right under Todoroki's nose! Just when we thought he removed himself from the rest of the competition!"

Yeah!

WHAT. WAIT.

* * *

Heterochromatic eyes widened in shock as the figure swung right past him, blonde hair billowing behind her.

A string of curses sounded from nearby, followed by a bunch of explosions. "The fuck- Are you fucking kidding me?"

* * *

'_Shit. I got carried away.'_

She glanced backwards briefly, only to turn away just as quickly when she caught a glimpse of Todoroki's bloodcurdling death glare, Bakugou right on his heels with the same exact expression.

Someone was going to die today and she was all too sure that it was going to be her.

'_With great power comes great responsibility- why was that not the first thing that came to my mind? Noo, it had to be the stupid spider-pig theme! I have disappointed you, Uncle Ben.'_

There was no doubt that if they happened to catch her, it was game over for her. Forget about Top 42, the clean-up crew would have to scrape her body pieces off the floor. And as such, Megumi started sprinting with renewed vigor when her feet touched the ground, letting her chains disperse.

"And now we come to the hidden final barrier! Its true form is none other than the minefield right out of Rambo 3!"

She was 100% sure Sensei was having too much fun for all these puns to be accidental.

From what she remembered from the manga, the minefield was an obstacle devised to disadvantage the kids in the lead. Todoroki had been intercepted by Bakugou right here. But now that _she _was in the lead, they were both focused on blasting her to kingdom come. She chuckled nervously. '_I'm in danger.'_

Her plan had been to sprint fast in the first half of the race so she could run at a leisurely pace during the minefield barrier. However, it seemed that she had severely underestimated her own speed. Now she had two very angry hero apprentices who were quite possibly trying to kill her with all the ice slabs and explosions thrown her way.

"Some heated competition up in the front! Rejoice, mass media- this is just the sort of development you crave!"

Yeah okay cool, but like, was nobody worried in the least that she was clearly on death's doorstep?!

Megumi leapt over rocks of ice, designed to slip and trip her up. Bakugou shoved Todoroki aside, explosions aimed at her as she evaded the scorching heat he gave off with surprising dexterity. All the while, they tried to corner her into a directions where mines lay in the ground, ready to explode. She couldn't help but let out silent pleas for help. _'Is it so hard to just run past me?! Please just leave me alone!'_

Another explosion shook the ground and she rolled away just in time. Todoroki and Bakugou were on her tail, Todoroki constructing a tall wall of ice in front of her. At the same time, Bakugou came in from her side with his hands blazing. "DIE!"

'_Uh, no. Please don't.' _All she knew was that her instinct were screaming at her to _move. _She backflipped into the air, avoiding his explosive hands. Planting her feet firmly on his arm and shoulder, Megumi jumped up at the ice wall and climbed over it, continuing to dash for survival's sake.

She eluded their attacks, cartwheeling, somersaulting and making faux turns all over the place. Heck, she was beginning to feel light headed. Surely not a good sign.

A thunderous _BOOM _came from somewhere in the back.

"Class A's Midoriya mounts his charge… using shockwaves?!"

Hope began blooming inside Megumi. She watched as the green haired boy flew right past them, Todoroki and Bakugou's demeanors shifting. _'Fantastic, Midoriya! Come here and get these two monsters off my back!"_

"He overtook them! He overtook theeeem!"

With a sudden burst, Bakugou shot past her. As did todoroki, freezing the ground in an attempt to slow down the two boys in front of him. She let herself take a breather, hanging back and slowing down to a fast jog. Her relief was immense. _'I'm- not gonna die. Top 42!'_

"What's this?! Airashi is overtaken by all 3 contenders at once! The other two formerly in the lead have now begun to bolt after Midoriya!"

Megumi tried to keep her eyes open, the headache she had been ignoring up until that point making itself known vividly. She kept track of Present Mic's frantic comments, feeling how a student or two overtook her while she was busy trying to force away the black spots in her visions.

"He's cleared the landmine area entirely! Damn, Eraserhead, your class is insane! What are you teaching them?!"

"I didn't do anything. They've been spurring each other on all on their own."

* * *

She slowed down completely when she stepped foot on the finish line, falling on her hands and knees panting. She was utterly exhausted. What happened back there took legit _years _off her lifespan. The panic and adrenaline was just now starting to ebb away as she fought to urge to faint where she stood. At one point, Asui had come to her side. Ashido came right after. They were talking, but everything sounded like they were underwater. A concerned Asui asked her something- or she assumed she did when she saw her lips moving. Megumi shook her head, pointing at her ears and indicating she couldn't hear. Ashido frowned, slowly lifting her up by supporting her shoulder. Megumi stood straight, head hung low as her ears rung and her vision span around.

It was a miracle how her legs didn't crumble beneath her. Asui disappeared somewhere. By the time she came back, Megumi had gained back some of her senses. She gratefully accepted the water bottle and cookie Asui offered her.

"Man, that was crazy Megumi!" Ashido beamed at her. "You almost came in first place! I thought you were a total goner with those two going at you like rabid wolves."

"I'm glad you're alive Megumi-chan, kero." Asui added from beside her. Megumi couldn't help but chuckle, lifting up her tied hair to press the cool water bottle against the back of her neck. "Me too, Asui-chan. Me too."

Present Mic's voice echoed through the clearing again. "And now they're steadily crossing the finish line one after another! We'll compile the results later, so enjoy your breather for the time being!"

Suddenly, a shoulder knocked into hers belligerently. Megumi stumbled, mumbling out an _Ouch. _Turning her head, she saw Todoroki glaring at her like she'd never seen before. Those heterochromatic eyes were brimming with challenge- a challenge she would not take him up on because clearly she had gotten into the Top 42 and she didn't give a fuck about the rest of the Sports Festival. She looked away from him, rubbing her shoulder.

Ashido made a startled sound at the exchange, looking none too pleased. "What's up with _him?" _

Megumi shrugged. "Must've been accidental." She could feel Asui staring her down, but there was not much she could say about it, really. If this was how Todoroki acted when he was displeased, then she was all the more relieved that Midoriya would be bringing an end to it during the finals.

After replaying the race a couple of times, Midnight announced the results with everyone watching in anticipation. To Megumi's joy, she had come in 6th place- her rank might have been higher if she didn't get dizzy during the last few feet to the finish line, but she was completely okay with 6th place when she had been aiming for Top 42. It was more than she could ask for. Iida had come in 5th and she had to applaud 1-B's thorn bush girl for ranking 4th. Lord knew she wouldn't have been able to drag all that hair for the entirety of the race and rank 4th to boot.

Ashido sighed in frustration. "19th? Ugh I could have done better."

Asui patted her back consolingly. "It's okay, kero. There's always next year. My rank isn't much better."

Next, Midnight announced that all 42 students would be taking part in a human cavalry battle. Megumi tuned out most of her talking, scrutinizing the dirt in her fingernails. She didn't plan on tryharding for the cavalry battle, fully intent on taking it easy. After all, there was nobody actively cheering for her to win during the Sports Festival- she had no one to please and no one whose expectations she wanted to meet. There were a bunch of other students who would benefit more from advancing onto the finals than she would.

Moreover, now that she had proved she could use her quirk during the race, there was not much point in going hard in the other challenges. Cuz that's where main character stuff happened and she didn't want to touch main character stuff, not even with a 10 foot pole.

"With the exception of 1st place, whose head is worth a whooping ten million!"

Everyone stared at Midoriya, a predatory gleam in their eyes. Megumi let out an emotionless "Wow," fixated on the piece of dirt that just wouldn't get out of her fingernail. _'I need to cut my nails after this…'_

"All right, you have 15 minutes until then! Start negotiating your team-ups!"

She groaned, her shoulders slumping. She really didn't want to. Maybe she could join Asui in her team, seeing as they wouldn't be advancing to the next round. But it would make her feel absolutely terrible if she didn't give her best when a friend needed her- joining Ashido wasn't an option either. The pinkette had immediately migrated over to the crowd forming around Bakugou.

Well, the obvious option was to join a few 1-B people. At 6th place, she had accumulated around 185 points. Unfortunately, Megumi didn't think her quirk was suited to compete in a human cavalry battle.

She caught purple eyes staring at her from across the clearing. Shinsou raised an eyebrow at her. She raised one right back. Then and there, a thought struck her. What if she were to let him manipulate her into joining his team? If they happened to win she could forfeit out of the competition using fair play as an excuse. And most importantly, she wouldn't even be doing anything! Shinsou's quirk would do all the work for her! Mind made up, she started walking over to the boy.

Unfortunately, the universe seemed to have other plans.

A hand came down on her right shoulder, smoldering heat pressing down forcefully. She froze, a chill creeping up her back.

"_Still no team, Goldilocks?"_

* * *

She didn't know what the actual fuck was going on, but she sure as hell didn't like it.

"Yay, we're gonna be teaming up together! Let's do our best Megumi!" Ashido cheered, linking their arms and pressing theirs cheeks together.

Kirishima had seized one of her hands in a handshake. "You were so manly out there, Airashi! Can't wait to charge into battle with you!"

She felt like she had landed in a rock and a hard place. Stuck between two puppies who she was reluctant to disappoint. Megumi maintained her polite smile. "Likewise." _'NO. NOT LIKEWISE. I'M FREAKING OUT OVER HERE.'_

"10 minutes have passed… we'll be starting any minute now!" Midnight announced.

Bakugou's eye twitched, growling irritably. "Quit with the fucking pleasantries. You extras better not slack off." His sharp stare landed on her. "Especially _you._"

Was it her or did her stomach just drop and curl in on itself? _'Jesus Christ, my dude. You're not doing a very good job of answering my prayers.'_

* * *

This whole thing was getting too weird for her to handle.

She trembled as Bakugou ripped the 675 points worth headband out of Midnight's hand, aggressively tying it around Megumi's head. His glare was a mix of reluctance and murderous killing intent. "You better not fuck this up, Monkey Girl, or I will fucking _kill _you."

She swallowed down the objections lying on the tip of her tongue. "Y-yes."

_The _Bakugou was telling her to shut up and be the rider? No way.

This was a very bad situation. She hadn't expected for _Bakugou _of all people to come sauntering up to her, inviting her into his team- uh, did it really count as 'inviting' her when he was literally frothing at the mouth trying to keep himself from melting her face off? Anybody would have been scared shitless if someone approached them like that. Megumi wasn't able to say anything to refuse his invitation (threat? It had sounded more like a threat) and got sucked into his pace, her quirk's hackles rising at the way he grabbed her by the collar.

She got an explanation for why he had chosen her, more or less. "You can dodge the shitheads trying to grab _my_ points" and he emphasized that with another glower, as if daring her to say otherwise, "and snatch their headbands with those fancy monkey chains of yours. Shitty hair will be guarding the front. Racoon eyes and I are flanking the sides." He eyed the headband on Megumi's head, like it was physically paining him to see it on someone else. He then grabbed her by the collar again (she didn't think her gym uniform could get any more stretched out but Bakugou was proving that wrong). "Don't think I'll let you get away with it if we lose because of _you_." He hissed at her.

She blanched. _'So it's gonna be my fault if we don't get first place?!'_

Admittedly, Bakugou had thought about their strategy much more extensively than she had expected. He'd appointed her as the rider after witnessing first-hand how difficult it was to trip her up during the race. She might not have been a powerhouse like him or Kirishima, but she compensated for it with speed and resilience. It made sense to have her as the rider instead of risking her collapsing and having a weak flank while trying to hold up Bakugou's weight. Not to mention with the explosive boy guarding one side and Ashido the other, they'd be having both explosions and acid at their arsenal if they needed to fight off the competition.

She didn't know how or why, but the blonde boy had actually managed to swallow his pride to achieve the best outcome in this challenge. With a heavy heart, Megumi watched as Sero joined Mineta, Shoji and Asui's team. _'Nothing's going right today…'_

A hand slapped her upside the head. "Quit staring into space like an idiot and climb on already!" Damn it.

She wobbled a bit when they lifted her up, grabbing onto Kirishima's shoulders. The redhead turned his head slightly, giving her a smile full of sharp teeth. "We're gonna win this, I can feel it! No pressure though, Airashi." No pressure? The red eyes boring holes into the back of her head were supposed to be 'no pressure'? Yeah no.

"Alright, have you all formed your little teams?! Well, you better have! Let's do it! Let's start the countdown for this vicious clash!"

Megumi cleared her head, shaking her arms to get the blood circulating through them. _'Time to stop complaining and start walking the talk. Since it's come to this, there's no way I can let us lose.' _She leaned forward, muscles tensing and eyes trained onto the other teams getting ready for the battle. _'I don't know what the fuck Bakugou is thinking, but it's too late to escape now.'_

"Three…"

She eyed those who were solely concentrated on Team Midoriya. Her hands tugged at Kirishima's hair and she pointed out directions for Bakugou and Ashido at the back. Bakugou seethed, grabbing her knee in a vice grip as if asking her what the hell she thought she was doing.

"Two…"

Megumi lowered her head in a whisper. "Don't worry, we're gonna go after Midoriya eventually." It was the first time Ashido had seen those teal eyes flash so dangerously. "Right after we blow everyone else out of the competition."

A devilish smirk formed on Bakugou's face. Now _that's _what he wanted to hear.

"…One! START!"

Team Bakugou's downfall in the original series had been the fact that Bakugou had been too focused on Midoriya to pay attention to the other competitors. She would not make the same mistakes he had done. _'Shouldn't be too much of a problem using my quirk here… I don't need to make them thick as ropes this time.'_

Charging forward, Megumi nimbly dodged the sticky balls Mineta had started throwing around. She signaled at Kirishima to avoid them, Bakugou blasting them away with his feet and Ashido simply melting them off with her acid. Megumi ducked her head as Team Midoriya flew into the air. Thin chains shot up from her fingertips, successfully avoiding Jiro's earphone jacks which had been reaching up for Midoriya.

Jiro, Sato and Koda had teamed up with none other than 1-B's Hagakure. Strange, considering the rivalry between the two classes. But it would certainly work for Team Bakugou's favor- their guard was way off.

With a simple pull, the chains ripped off Hagakure's headband, throwing it into Megumi's awaiting hands.

Hagakure squawked in surprise. "What-?!"

Megumi's eyes met a pair of periwinkle eyes, slanted downwards and squinting at her in disdain. His hand was still in the air from where he had planned on snatching away Hagakure's headband. Megumi raised her eyebrows at him. "Oops. My bad." _'Look who it is! This is getting pretty interesting.'_

There he was, Monoma Neito in all his glory, looking at her unamused. She had just stolen his target after all.

But she wouldn't be fighting him just yet. Megumi jerked away from Monoma at the last minute, watching as Team Mineta set their sights on Team Monoma after being blasted away by Bakugou one too many times.

In quick succession, Megumi was able to snatch Team Kodai and Team Tsunotori's points away. The headbands hung loosely from her shoulders as she kept them attached to her with chains- nobody would be able to rip them off easily with her chains guarding them like a snake coiling around her neck.

That's when Bakugou let out a particularly loud explosion. Megumi almost slid right off with the force of the blast, grabbing onto Kirishima. "What the hell Bakugou?!"

But he wasn't listening to her. "What the fuck you ass-rag piece of shit stay the fuck away!" Megumi grimaced at Monoma, whose hands were now crackling with Bakugou's quirk. He shot them a condescending smirk as he repressed every single kick Bakugou threw at him, arms hardening. Megumi clicked her tongue. _'Shit! When did he copy Kirishima's quirk?' _She had wanted to avoid this confrontation for far longer, but it seemed that would be impossible. _'What would happen if he copied my quirk?'_

Meanwhile, Kirishima was on the verge of tears. "Huuuuh?! My quirk too?! They're taking _everything _from me…"

The next few minutes were far more stress than Megumi ever wanted in her life. Monoma kept trying to goad them on, his hands reaching out for their headbands only for Megumi to evade, slapping him away with her chains. "What's this? Are the powerful 1-A students cowering away from a challenge? Though, I must say, I'm not surprised in the least, ahaha!"

This bitch.

Bakugou finally erupted, not able to withstand Monoma's mocking laughter and passive-aggressive insults. "What are you waiting for?! Kick his fucking ass or I WILL."

Before she could say anything back, she felt a hand press against her arm. She snatched her arm back as if she'd been burned, staring at Monoma in shock. Her quirk was crying out to her in bitter disgust. Once again, her headache came back with a vengeance. She gripped her head, trying not to gag. _'Oh god this feels slimy. Ugh is this how everyone else feels having their quirk copied?'_ Monoma laughed at the expression on her face. "What, scared to face me now that I have your quirk? If you want it back, I'll gladly give it to you- with a price, of course!"

He made a grab for the headbands around her neck, his eyes glowing teal and chains manifesting around his arm. Megumi leaned back, staving off the inevitable. _'Bakugou is going to kill me!'_

Only for the chains to rattle violently, latching onto Monoma and his team as they flailed around, trying to keep their balance. Monoma yelled out obscenities. "Wh-what the hell's up with your quirk?!" Megumi's eyes widened. She stood up on her feet, face determined. "Now, Kirishima!" They ran past the struggling Team Monoma, Megumi reaching out for their headband and grabbing it. She secured it tightly around her neck just like the other ones. Bakugou hollered back at them as they distanced themselves, satisfaction dripping off of him In waves. "HA! EAT SHIT."

Megumi contemplated their next move. Kaminari would be paralyzing the other teams with his electric voltage soon, and they would be stuck frozen to the ground due to Todoroki's quirk, giving him free leeway to snatch their points. Undoubtedly, Bakugou would be absolutely pissed. She glanced at him briefly. He was on the lookout, lower lip jutting out in an ugly scowl. Her eyes narrowed. _'He gave up the rider's position to me. I don't know what he's playing at, but he was willing to put himself in a supporting position in order to win this thing. I don't even think he knows my name… Somehow, I don't think I can disappoint him. It doesn't seem right.'_

She told her team what she thought might happen. Kirishima and Ashido started proposing ideas and precautions against losing their points. Megumi also chimed in here and there, wracking her brain for a plan. Now that they'd fought off Monoma and his cronies, there wouldn't be much stopping them from going after Midoriya.

Someone aggressively tugged at her leg. She diverted her attention to Bakugou, who was observing the battlefield with a sharp glint in his eyes. "Listen here, Goldilocks. I got a plan and you better not fuck it up."

* * *

Less than 6 minutes left.

"Wh-what's this? Todoroki holds back the mob of cavalries in one fell swoop!"

"He used Kaminari's electricity to stop everyone firmly in their tracks so he could be sure to freeze them all."

Todoroki looked directly into teal eyes as he grabbed a hold of her 675 point headband. She let him take it, unfazed.

(He should have known that something suspicious was up considering how easily she let him take it.)

In the end, it was Team Midoriya vs. Team Todoroki. Dark shadow countered everything they threw at them, swatting away Yaoyorozu's creations and Todoroki's icicles.

"There's only about a minute left! And Todoroki has set the field… all that's left now is taking those ten million points! It'll be swiped in an instant!"

Team Midoriya dodged another offensive, still keeping the lead.

"Or so I might have thought up until 5 minutes ago! But Midoriya has done well to keep away during all that time, even in this constricted space!"

It was a never ending cycle of defense and offense, both teams starting to tire out. Until finally, _finally, _Iida made his move.

"Guys, we have less then a minute… I'm afraid I'll be useless after this. So I'm counting on you."

The engines on the back of his legs came to life. His voice echoed through the clearing. "Take it Todoroki! Torque over!"

They abruptly flew toward Team Midoriya with Iida's powerful recipro-burst. Kaminari barely had time to brace himself, Yaoyorozu holding on tightly trying not to let Todoroki fall. Dark shadow cawed in surprise, Tokoyami's eyes widening. Panic started setting in for Midoriya when he felt his headband slip off as Todoroki grabbed it.

Everyone was so sure Team Todoroki would be winning, the cheers in the audience deafening-

An explosion went off in the distance, resulting in a huge cloud of dust.

A shadow fell over both teams. They looked up just in time to see thin chains attaching themselves to the headband in Todoroki's hand, violently ripping it away from him.

Megumi flipped mid-air, bringing the chains back. Her fingers clasped around the headband.

Kirishima, Bakugou and Ashido sped forward, past Team Todoroki and Team Midoriya. Just in time for Megumi to land perfectly, back straight and arms spread out in a perfect landing position as they caught her by the ankles.

"UNBELIEVABLEEE! TEAM AIRASHI- I MEAN, TEAM BAKUGOU JUST SHOT UP TO FIRST PLACE WITHIN NOT EVEN A MINUTE REMAINING!"

Midoriya looked on in horror at the scoreboard. "What?! Is that allowed?!"

* * *

Megumi clambered off once Present Mic announced their time was up. Bakugou snagged the ten million points from her as soon as her feet touched the ground and started waving it around like a victory flag, making sure to brag about his own genius strategy. "I told you! I fucking won! You extras got _nothing_ on me!"

Kirishima and Ashido came to stand on her sides, all three of them watching Bakugou go around antagonizing the distraught participants. Kirishima scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "To be honest, I didn't think we'd get first place… to think Bakugou made Airashi the rider- but it turned out really well! Good job Airashi!"

Asui came to stand with them as well. "Damn, it sucks to lose. But congratulations, Mina, Megumi-chan."

Ashido sighed, not looking very happy despite the outcome of the battle. "I was only added as an answer to Todoroki's ice. I don't know if I actually match up with their strength…"

Megumi wobbled on her feet. She couldn't find the strength to speak, let alone console Ashido. _'I feel like shit.' _She stayed around long enough for the rankings to be displayed. Team Bakugou (named after him, as per his demand) placed first, Team Todoroki coming in second and Team Shinsou in third place. Midoriya broke the freaking ground with his tears when he realized Tokoyami had been able to snatch away the 675 point headband hanging on Todoroki's blind spot, officially qualifying Team Midoriya for the final round.

She silently made her way toward one of the exits, hoping to find a bench somewhere. Her head felt like it was simultaneously on fire and getting crushed by a boulder. _'I overdid it. I better go get myself some juice or something…'_

* * *

Sometimes, things just did not go the way she wanted them to.

She tightly pressed herself against the wall, internally bemoaning her luck. She had skipped out on lunch, walking around in the corridors and waiting rooms in a fruitless attempt to suppress the nausea threatening to climb up from the back of her throat. She'd even bought some tomato juice and all! And now _this._

"Are you All Might's illegitimate child or something?"

Holy shit. That line would never be not funny.

Seafoam green eyes peeked at the two figures standing across from each other in the entryway. Of all the places to be, she had walked right in on Todoroki and Midoriya having their talk before the final round started. She couldn't help but take a sip of her juice as she watched Todoroki unload his traumatic experiences onto poor Midoriya. The green haired boy looked like he was going to faint any second now. Megumi pitied him. _'Todoroki's even scarier when he's talking about his father than when he glares at me.'_

"Are you telling me… he's going to f-force you into a quirk marriage as well? W-with Airashi-san-"

She almost choked on her drink, doubling over. A puddle of juice dripped onto the floor, courtesy of Megumi crushing the juice box in her hand upon hearing that load of bullshit. _'Q-quirk marriage with Todoroki?! Do they even know how old I actually am- what the hell, I'm not putting my hands on a kid!'_

As if that wasn't bad enough, she looked up- only to see piercing red eyes staring back at her from across the other wall, darting between her and the puddle of tomato juice at her feet. Ah, fuck.

Todoroki scoffed from where he was talking with Midoriya. "Of course not. He's not interested in her quirk. He intends to keep a good relationship with Airashi pharmaceuticals, and the best way to do that was to have me play along with with their daughter's absurd fantasies. The Airashi family would never allow their heir to marry someone who's not a part of the pharmaceutical or medical industry- it's been that way for generations. They're just humoring her."

She scowled. So they had been making a fool of the Original all this time.

Bakugou squinted at her as if waiting for her to break down crying or something. If that was the case, then he'd be waiting for a long time. Why would she be crying over some boy she had no feelings for? If she was gonna cry, it would be over the Original's dumb inability to realize that she was literally a tool being used.

"I'll become number 1 without _needing _to use my fire. This is my total disavowal of him."

Megumi straightened up, chucking her empty juice box into a nearby trashcan and walking off. That had been all she needed to hear. Surprisingly, this small incident had given her some insight into what her family planned to do with her. She had to give props to Todoroki for being so willing to divulge such information.

The blond boy who had also been listening in on that very interesting convo shot her a look. She simply lifted up her index finger and thumb to her lips, making a zipping motion.

And off she went, to the wending machines to get another box of tomato juice. The other one had been ruined after all.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Here it is! The very long chapter that took a lot of willpower to write.**

**Thank you all for your reviews, it's really nice reading your thoughts and theories on the story. (Would've loved including the strategic slapping of butts. Might just use that in the future XD)**

**I went through a very hard internal struggle deciding which way to go with this chapter. I was like, 'wouldn't Bakugou rather die than give someone else the spotlight?', but right after that I really couldn't control myself from writing the cavalry battle the way I did. I hope he wasn't too OOC. My understanding of Bakugou is that he acts dumb but isn't actually dumb. If that makes sense haha. I just wanted to write something fun. Since last chapter was so short and unsatisfying, I wrote a lot more this time.**

**I actually got the inspiration for Megumi's quirk from Kushina. Her chains always seemed so cool to me. **

**Next are the finals! Time for more nonsense! :D**


	9. Anger

**:)**

* * *

**_\- Chapter 8 -_**

**_Anger_**

* * *

He flipped his exercise book shut after going over his notes a few more times. Standing up from his chair, he started packing up the papers and pencils scattered on his desk. The teacher had dismissed them with a strict wave of her hand, before proceeding to quite literally skip out of the door without any regard to how she looked doing so. The girls who had been huddled around him as he worked dispersed as well, pulling out their phones and checking their social media immediately. They had been all up in his face before, asking him inane questions and brushing their elbows or shoulders against him in a desperate attempt to get closer.

He supposed he couldn't expect them to have enough braincells to solve simple mathematical equations if that was their pathetic idea of flirting. Airashi Seiichi sneered, shaking his head in disgust. _'Students, teachers, even faculty members- they're all the same.'_

Everyone knew that cram school classes had been shortened due to UA's Sports Festival taking place. Nobody wanted to pass up the chance to get a glimpse of the finals. Seiichi's lip curled at the thought. Did people not have more useful things to do than watch a bunch of high school kids prance around and show off their quirks? He couldn't fathom how such a thing could be entertaining. Even at Soumei Junior High, people wouldn't shut up about those flashy wannabe heroes.

He adjusted his middle school uniform as he entered the limousine, his driver taking his bag off his back. Crossing his legs, he turned turned his face toward the window, his grey eyes surveying the changing scenery.

Heroes… in the world they lived in, they were a necessity for sure. Crime rates around the world were steadily rising and Japan was among one of the top countries with a crime rate below 10%. But that could only be attributed to the Symbol of Peace, All Might. What did other heroes do aside from raking in fame and money they didn't deserve? Absolute jack shit. Their statistics didn't even compare to All Might's. They were all lame attention seekers, acting like they were doing their jobs when in reality they did nothing but create more villains with the social hierarchy they had created.

He snorted to himself humorlessly. Haughty teal eyes and a scornful scowl came to the forefront of his mind. _'That's right. She thinks someone like her can be a hero. Delusional moron.' _

Then again, if she did manage to become a hero, she'd fit right in with the rest of them. Either way, it would turn out just like his mother had said. A failure would always stay a failure no matter what they tried to do. A smirk formed on his lips, his fingers running through his straight brown hair. _'I wonder what you're doing right now, big sister. Crying in a corner somewhere because you lost the first challenge?'_

* * *

It was excruciating.

She dug her nails into her scalp, shutting her eyes tight as another head-splitting ache made her groan in agony. The only warning Megumi had gotten before her body went slack from the unbearable pain had been her vision exploding in an array of kaleidoscopic colors. She had caught herself from tilting sideways onto the floor just in time, an intense sense of vertigo assaulting her.

She had only barely managed to drag herself into one of the waiting rooms, closing and locking the door behind her before sliding down onto the ground in a writhing mess. It _hurt. _Her skull was being cracked open, or at least that's how it felt like to her when every slight movement made the stabbing, straining sensation even stronger. Her rapid breathing filled the empty room as she tried to get a hold of herself.

It had never gotten this bad before. This… this was just pure, crippling misery.

Todoroki's words had been weighing on her mind ever since she had caught him telling Midoriya about his terrible childhood. She had gotten herself a few more boxes of tomato juice, drinking them and aimlessly wandering around while mulling over his words. She had made sure to avoid the entryway she had previously seen them in. Despite her calm exterior, there had been a sick feeling brewing inside of her.

So they were all humoring her? Like she was some kind of mindless _puppet _who could be manipulated for their entertainment? And nobody had even once _bothered _to get their head out of their ass for once to treat the Original like she actually had any say in her life? That was exactly the reason why that foolish girl had been so horribly sheltered and ignorant. Nobody had ever fucking bothered for once to knock some sense into her, because they just didn't give a shit.

They had raised the Original like a dumb cow ready for slaughter, and the Original had been so clueless and stupid and wrapped up in her own little world that- that she had no idea. She had _never _been in control. All the people feeding her empty praises, filling her delusional little mind with a uselessly grand image of herself like she was some kind of princess who just deserved everything without having to earn it- Awful. It was awful. They were going to chain her down and marry her off to some rich old loony as soon as they got the opportunity, and for what? Money, connections, reputation?

Nobody had bothered to… to just tell her the damn truth.

Not even Todoroki. She knew, knew that she shouldn't be mad at someone who had been reluctantly following his father's orders since a very young age, but it didn't change the fact that he had done _nothing _like everybody else. He could have distanced himself from the Original, told her very bluntly that he had no interest in her and that she should fuck off.

But he didn't- he endured her despicable behavior. He continued to lead her on, giving her false hope that maybe one day he could reciprocate her feelings- without having any intentions of doing so. Was he obligated to look out for his obsessed stalker? Absolutely not. However, that didn't change the fact that he had never explicitly stated or gone out of his way to be truthful with the Original about how little of a flying fuck he gave about her.

No, he had gone ahead and done just as his garbage daddy had told him to. Out of all things to _not _be rebellious about, he had chosen this particular thing? Really?

She was so fucking mad.

Everyone was out for their own selfish interests. The disgust physically made her eyes water. Nobody deserved to live like that- to live in a fake happy bubble, like an actor whose role a higher force could mold into whatever they wanted. The Original had been a sad, sad little girl who had never learned to grow up.

She just couldn't get over it. Colby was seething- no child deserved to be raised that way. How would the Original have turned out if she had normal parents, surrounded by a loving family?

It was in the middle of her fuming inner monologue when her migraine had lashed out with a vengeance.

And now here she was, in a dark empty waiting room, squirming in pain and distress as she tried to gather her wits. They were going to be announcing the matches for the fighting tournament in less than 10 minutes- she had no time to waste. Megumi didn't particularly want to see anyone's face right now, and especially not Todoroki's. Hell, she couldn't imagine fighting anyone with the way she was now- she hoped the time off they gave them before the first round would be enough to get her shit together. Not showing up to the matchup announcements would give them the impression that she was some kind of good-for-nothing slacker who didn't bother showing up. She couldn't have that happening, it simply wasn't something she could do in good conscience.

She already had some things in mind for what she wanted to do during the first round of the tournament. What she could do was exchange a flew blows with her opponent, before forfeiting so she could drag her sorry ass to Recovery Girl's office. Her anger was starting to simmer down, the stabbing pain gradually turning into a dull throb. Now that she wasn't as disoriented anymore, Megumi noticed the thick warm liquid dripping down her nose. _'Uh oh.'_

She shuffled over to the sink at the corner of the waiting room, looking at the small mirror above it. The glow of her eyes were flickering on and off erratically, blood streaks running down to her lips and chin. Some of it had gotten on her gym uniform, but the color was hardly noticeably due to the material soaking it up.

She grimaced at her reflection. The spot she had previously been laying on looked like a bloody crime scene. _'Didn't even fight yet and I look like a corpse. Better clean this up and get going.'_

* * *

"And just look how fired up those cheerleaders we called from America are!"

Megumi followed behind a few 1-B students, entering the stadium. She felt like a Spartan gladiator walking to her death. Was that too dramatic of a comparison? Perhaps.

Anyone who looked at her would not be able to tell what she had been going through just minutes prior. Her eyes absentmindedly strayed to the cheerleaders dancing energetically for the crowd. Where did they get that much energy? At this rate, any of those cheerleaders was more likely to win in a fight than Megumi. Annoyance still festered somewhere in the forefront of her mind, though not enough to have her eyes flicker like a pair of broken lanterns again. Her quirk was being affected by her terrible mood.

"Huh? What's this? What happened, Class A?!"

At first, her brain couldn't quite process what she was looking at. She had automatically drifted over to where her class stood without really looking anyone in the face.

Yaoyorozu looked absolutely livid as she stood clad in an outfit identical to those of the American cheerleaders'… along with the rest of her fellow female classmates. They all had decidedly unamused expressions. "Mineta, Kaminari! You tricked us, didn't you!"

She pointed an accusatory finger at Megumi when she saw her approaching. "You! Where were you!? I even made one for you!"

Megumi shifted slightly, turning her head away. "I had… some stuff going on… and uh, you guys look…" A snort escaped her. She immediately clamped a hand over her mouth. "…nice."

Yaoyorozu looked like she was dying on the inside. Ashido put her hands on her hips as she pouted. "Yeah, well, you would've looked just as nice if you hadn't crawled into some gloomy corner during lunch break!"

Another snort. Megumi turned away completely, trembling with suppressed laughter. "S-sorry, just give me a moment." She utterly failed to keep a straight face. They looked hilarious.

"How did I end up stumbling into Mineta's schemes once again…" Yaoyorozu bemoaned, slumping in defeat. Uraraka patted her shoulder, attempting to comfort the taller girl.

Jirou threw her pompoms on the ground like they were poison, glaring daggers at Mineta and Kaminari. "They really are just idiots!"

Even if only for a split-second, Megumi felt genuine humor press back the heavy ire clouding her mind. Smoldering irritation had lodged itself into her gut and she very much doubted it would go away any time soon. At least she could distract herself with other things to keep her quirk from going haywire. She didn't want her chains drunkenly lashing out due to her emotions.

Asui zeroed in on something on Megumi's tank top. "That looks like a big stain."

Megumi's heart instantly leapt to her throat. "...Must have spilled while drinking tomato juice." She hastily zipped up her blue sweatshirt all the way up. She hadn't thought the blood would be visible on the black material, but Asui had keener eyes than she had expected.

Present Mic's voice grated on her ears again as he spoke. "From four teams, 16 individuals have made it through! Next on the program is a tournament! We're pitting them against each other in one-on-one combat!"

Oh boy. Here it was. The announcement for the main event. Megumi fiddled with her zipper distractedly. She wondered which lucky bastard she'd be matched up against. Whoever it was gonna be, they better appreciate the free win she was going to give them. It wasn't an everyday occurrence to have someone in one of the most competitive classes at UA forfeit willingly.

Midnight pulled out a lottery box from god knows where. "Whether or not the 16 who will be competing want to join in on the recreational activities is up to you." Recreational activities? Ah, right. _Those. _She'd pass. "Since I'm sure many of you will be wanting to take a breather or preserve your energy. So, starting from the team that placed first, let's determine the order…"

Megumi expected it when Ojiro put up a hand in the air, withdrawing from the fighting tournament. He must have been conflicted, having made it to finals, albeit not on his own merits. 1-B's Shouda followed his lead as well, the round boy looking up at Midnight earnestly. "I don't remember what happened either… I want to abstain too! For a person who didn't do anything to rise up to the next round… it would defeat the purpose of the Sports Festival!"

She couldn't help but cross her arms, subtly nodding her head in agreement. She could definitely understand where the both of them were coming from. If only Bakugou had chosen one of them instead of her- they certainly deserved going to the finals more than she did. Nevertheless, Megumi chanced a glance at Shinsou who had been publicly called out during the whole debacle. The purple haired boy looked sullen, but not at all apologetic. _'Man, that must suck. Imagine getting called out for using your quirk during a competition that requires you to use your quirk… dude's got it tough.' _

Kirishima was on the verge of tearing up, touched by their display. "Man, you guys are super manly!" Meanwhile Bakugou looked on in confusion, clearly not understanding what this whole issue was about. To him, a win was a win.

"How naive and green… I love it!" Midnight cracked her whip in delight. Megumi winced. _'This woman is low-key insane.' _" I hereby accept Shouda and Ojiro's withdrawals!"

Okay good. So that was over. The team who came in first would be drawing lots first, and so she made her way to the podium with a jumpy Ashido following after her. It was funny how none of the 1-A girls had changed out of those cheerleader outfits yet. She hoped Yaoyorozu wouldn't pull her aside to shove one of those things into her arms for her to wear, because there was no way she would ever willingly slip them on.

Her mind briefly went to the Original's idea of a hero costume. She blanched. _'Oh lord. I need to change that.'_

"And the matchups are as follows!"

She hoped she'd be against someone who would originally be winning anyway. Like Iida, or Shiozaki- hell, even Midoriya! Then again, no natter who advanced in the finals, either Todoroki or Bakugou were sure to sweep them off the competition. Those two were on a league of their own. Midoriya still couldn't control his quirk properly as far as she knew, but in a few years he'd be giving pros a run for their money anyway. In the grand scheme of things, this Sports Festival was just a small hurdle to him.

The big screen attached to the walls of the stadium came to life, displaying the matchups for everyone to see. The tension was palpable as participants eyed the people they were going to be up against. Megumi's teal eyes tried to take it all in, her gaze flitting over to the other matches first. To her surprise, the matchups were surprisingly similar to what they had been in the original series- except that it would be Shiozaki fighting Aoyama and Ashido versus Kaminari. Oddly enough, the order of the matches were different despite the minuscule differences in matchups. The first match would be between Kirishima and Tetsutetsu. Midoriya and Shinsou were all the way in the second to last slot of the list. Ah, and there it was, her name…

Her blood ran cold.

* * *

Shinsou sidled up beside the blonde, also scrutinizing the matchups on the big screen. She made no indication of having noticed him coming up next to her. He tilted his head at her silence. She'd been chatty enough in their previous interactions.

He let out a tired yawn. There was no harm in messing around with her. "So we both made it to the final rounds. I didn't expect much from you, but you sure do hold on to what you preach."

No answer. His brows furrowed slightly. He pushed on. "I guess we never got to fight during the cavalry. That explosion guy on your team made sure of it." Shinsou always had trouble dealing with the crude types with flashy quirks. He still hadn't forgotten Bakugou's arrogant declaration at the start of the Sports Festival.

Still no response from Airashi.

Did she refuse to talk to him now that she knew what he was capable of? It wouldn't be the first time that happened. For someone to find out about his quirk and go cold turkey. Maybe he had given her too much credit for talking to him so freely before.

No… that wasn't it. His bloodshot eyes narrowed in on the matchups she was so focused on.

Shinsou's eyebrows shot up when he saw her name. "Ahh, Todoroki." He snickered a bit. Now he got what was going on. "Too bad you won't be advancing any further than that, huh? Gonna let your boyfriend win?"

She stayed quiet. He finally looked at her, starting to feel a bit antsy.

Her eyes were boring holes into the screen, pupils so dilated they swallowed most of the teal iris. A thin red stripe of blood dripped from where she had bitten her lower lip. Her canines were unusually sharp.

He found himself inching away a bit. She didn't look like she was in the mood to talk.

Airashi turned on her heel and left. Shinsou scratched his head awkwardly. Had he been talking to himself all this time?

* * *

Out of all 16 people. Out of _all 16 people, _she had gotten Todoroki.

The only damn person out of 16 people who she desperately wanted to punch in the face.

Megumi kept telling herself that he had his own problems and struggles, that she had no right to be angry, especially when the Original had been annoying and pestering him for so goddamn long- but alas, _alas, _she couldn't help it. His bitch-ass dad was far out of her reach, and Todoroki was a constant reminder that she was going to be used and thrown away like used tissue by her so-called 'family'. He was the next best thing to let off steam on, the one person she had the opportunity to physically hurt.

And that was what scared her- she didn't want to _hurt _him. She was just so pissing _mad _that she doubted her ability to hold back. She wanted to let him win, she really did, that's what she had planned from the very beginning- to let the person she matched up against win without a fuss.

She was supposed to be the adult right? The 'bigger person'? But why did that leave a sour taste in her mouth?

It wasn't about letting her opponent win anymore. She... she _wanted _to fight Todoroki. She wanted closure.

Could she do it? Could she just _let _him win, knowing he wouldn't appreciate it in the least? She knew what everyone still thought of her. A smitten girl who couldn't bring herself to hurt her precious crush. Some girl who had made it very clear that her desire to become a hero was shallow at best. Sure, she'd gotten pretty far in the other challenges, enough for her to get at least 2 or 3 recommendations- but how much had that really changed?

They expected her to forfeit, didn't they? They expected her to let him win without a fight. She didn't know which ground her gears more- the fact that they thought she'd be such a weak-minded person, or the fact that Todoroki probably wouldn't even have to lift a single finger to win. Megumi was just a minor pebble in his path after all.

His expression had been so unbothered when he had seen the matchups… he _knew _he was going to win. He didn't consider her as anything worth worrying about. His goal was to beat Midoriya.

What had he said again? Ah, yes, they were _humoring her. _She wanted to swing her head back and laugh until she cried.

Except she wasn't laughing right now. _'What a load of bullshit.'_

She sat herself down at the bottom of a stairwell, holding a hand to her face to calm down. Her quirk was urging her and she was sick of having to repress her chains. It quite literally gave her a headache. She mumbled curses under breath, wondering about the jumbled mess that was her life. No matter what she tried, Todoroki's words kept echoing inside her head. The way he had said it, sounding so unbearably arrogant...

Light footsteps came from upstairs. Megumi froze, unsure whether she was allowed to loiter around these parts.

The footsteps slowed and came to a halt- only to approach closer to her. Megumi didn't want to lift her head from her hands, in case it was a prissy janitor telling her to go play outside.

"Hm~? Has the festival not gone well for you?" A pair of shoes stepped into her vision. Her eyes widened. She immediately lifted her head up. _Now _she remembered her- well, her name. The girl she had bumped into before.

Periwinkle curls and royal blue eyes. Hadou Nejire. Megumi stared up at her, mouth open in surprise.

* * *

"Hey guys, are you ready?! We've got a bunch in store for you! It's here that you will brawl!"

They watched as Cementoss crafted the arena they would be fighting in. It was considerably smaller in comparison to the entire stadium. The audience hung onto Present Mic's every word in anticipation.

"And the only person you can rely on is yourself! You don't have to be a hero to face such trials in life! You get it, right?!

Megumi clenched her fists, nails digging into her palm. Surprisingly, she couldn't help but take his words to heart. Especially after her conversation with Nejire-senpai.

"This will test your body! Your skills! Your very _soul! _Your wisdom and intuition!"

…Okay, now it was starting to get a bit obnoxious.

She was sitting up in the stands, together with the rest of her class. By the time she had arrived most of the seats had been taken, Ashido and Asui shooting her apologetic glances. She waved at them to ensure them it was fine, sitting somewhere empty in the middle of the front seats. It was closer to Bakugou and Kaminari than she would have usually liked, but if she had to choose, they were infinitely better than if Todoroki decided to join his class for whatever reason. He was still absent, probably brooding in one of the empty waiting rooms. Most likely he'd be slinking out to the stands once Midoriya's match started.

Kirishima and Tetsutetsu walked up to the ring, shoulders rigid and determined. Hell, she could feel the pure testosterone they gave off wafting all the way up to her.

She wondered how she would be approaching Todoroki. Calmly? Angrily? Looking just as manly as Kirishima? Haha, yeah right.

Nejire-senpai had been unexpectedly helpful- she almost felt like she didn't deserve such good advice.

* * *

_Nobody else had really tried prying much into Megumi's affairs. Ashido and Asui were wonderful friends, but she didn't want to burden them with her problems. So when the older girl questioned her whether she was alright, Megumi found herself at a loss of words. Those royal blue eyes were imploring her to talk. Megumi had never met someone with such a friendly and trustworthy aura before._

_That's why, despite her doubts, she told Hadou what had been plaguing her mind (albeit in a more abridged version without mentions of reincarnation or family drama). She didn't know what the hell she was doing at this point- and the girl before her didn't seem like the type to blab out everything she heard to other people. If she was this overwhelmed just by Hadou alone, she wondered how it would feel having both Mirio and Tamaki in the same room as well._

_Hadou simply tilted her head in confusion. "Isn't it obvious what you should be doing?"_

_Megumi stopped wiping the blood off her lip, the coppery taste on her tongue._

…_Obvious? Had she been missing something? Megumi's mouth twisted into a frown. She'd been wracking her brain about this predicament, slipping in and out of anger and worry repeatedly. What did she mean it was obvious? What was so obvious? She was seriously starting to question her own intelligence._

_Hadou giggled, patting her on the head like she was a little child sulking over candy. "How silly. Why are you overthinking it? This is a Sports Festival! It's for fun! You need to be having fun, Kouhai-chan!"_

_Megumi sighed. Of course she'd say that. Hadou was all smiley and easy-going, how could she understand the worries of some weird adult lady stuck in the body of a teenager? And why did it seem like this third year high schooler had her life figured out better than she did?_

_Hadou eyed the way Megumi looked skeptical, giving off an unsure energy. She shook her head as if chastising. "I think you're keeping quite a lot from me about this whole thing," Megumi snapped her head up. How had she been able to tell? "but I will be giving my opinion nevertheless. Why do you sound guilty over having to fight him? It's a fighting tournament! It's what you should be doing!"_

_That… wasn't wrong. But she was an adult. Talking out her issues instead of using force was something that had been instilled into her from a young age. Punching it out just wasn't her style…_

_Hands gripped both of her shoulders. Hadou looked her in the eyes intensely. "Trust me, once you step into that arena, you'll understand what I'm talking about. It doesn't matter what you are in a fight- age, gender, relationships, or whatever else there is, they won't exist. You'll both be on equal grounds. That's why, Kouhai-chan," she pinched Megumi's cheek, making her yelp. "you need to have fun."_

_She rubbed her cheeks solemnly as Hadou stepped back. They would both be… on equal grounds? But his quirk was… _

"_Anyway, I need to get going now. And you do too! Cheer your friends on, at least! And smile, you'll look cuter that way!"_

_Megumi stood up as well. Hadou had certainly given her a new perspective on things. "Ah, uh. Thank you, Hadou-senpai."_

_Hadou pouted. "No no- call me Nejire-senpai! That's what all my Kouhais call me! Well then, I hope I've helped even a little. I bid thee farewell!"_

_"...yes, Nejire-Senpai."_

_The bubbly girl bounded back up the stairs, disappearing from sight. Megumi started making her way back to 1-A's prep room, occasionally stumbling with the way she absentmindedly walked._

_Fun… all she had to do was… have fun?_

* * *

"Whaaat? How shocking! First match of the festival ends up in a draw! Well I suppose such an outcome also has its charm! What a hot-blooded battle that was!"

She watched as both Kirishima and Tetsutetsu knocked themselves out simultaneously, getting carried off to a nearby nurse's office when Midnight declared it a double knock-out. Bakugou and Uraraka had both gone down to prepare for their own match sometime in the middle of Kirishima's fight. Todoroki had surprisingly come up to the stands as well, not sitting but standing a bit off to the side.

She flexed her hands, starting to feel a bit impatient. Her and Todoroki's fight would be the last of the first rounders. There was still quite a bit of time until she had to go on.

She still had time until then. Silent plans started to form in the back of her mind, glassy eyes focusing on the next battle down below.

'_Fun, huh…'_

Uraraka didn't hold back with all the tactics she employed. In this battle, the brunette definitely had a disadvantage. She had to touch Bakugou with all five fingers for her to be able to land a critical blow on him, and Megumi knew all too well from having been together in a team with him that he was virtually untouchable with those exploding fists. His instincts were crazy and he was always unusually level-headed during serious fights, often outmaneuvering his opponents. It was only when he lost his cool that he began to get sloppy, evidenced by his previous (and future) fights with Midoriya. But Uraraka was holding up well against this beast of a boy, although Megumi could definitely see a few kinks in her defensive position.

She was going to be learning martial arts during her internship with Gunhead, wasn't she? Definitely a smart move. Someone with Uraraka's fighting spirit wasn't easy to come by.

However, Bakugou was going to win simply on the account that Uraraka's long-range quirk was clearly mismatched with his flexible close-range quirk. Megumi tried not to focus too much on the comments of the audience, complaining about Bakugou going all out on a girl. She found it nothing sort of demeaning for them to watch such an incredible fight and only focus on the fact that one of them was a girl. Watching them, she could only see two headstrong opponents, both going in for the win and nothing else. _'You should be ashamed of calling yourselves pros if that's the only thing you can think of saying.'_

Was it going to be like this with her against Todoroki as well? How could she have fun when she knew that there'd be comments like this circulating around? Even her classmates were looking worried for the brunette girl... and somehow, that made Megumi incredibly exasperated. Did they have no faith?

An idiot in the crowd had the gall to stand up and start yapping like he actually knew what he was talking about. "Hey! Do you mean to be a hero with conduct like that?! Stop toying with her-"

She stood up, smashing her boot onto the railing. Her classmates flinched back from the abrupt movement. Megumi reminded herself of the speech classes she had took sometime during college. _'Stand straight. Breathe through your diaphragm.' _Her hands came up to cup around her mouth. "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND WATCH THE FIGHT. GO HOME IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE HEAT, YOU WIMPS. WE DIDN'T GET HERE PICKING FLOWERS AND LOOKING PRETTY! AND YOU CALL YOURSELVES PROS!"

That shut them up real quick. Aizawa coughed a bit into the microphone he had stolen from Present Mic, addressing the people who had been booing Bakugou before her little outburst. "...How many years have you been a pro for? If you said that he's toying with her in your right mind, then there's no meaning for you to keep watching. Do us all a favor and go home. In fact, you ought to keep watching the fight at a career turn-over site. He clearly recognizes the strength of an opponent who's reached this far and is on guard as a result..." An amused lilt crept into his tone. "... and as someone said, none of the 16 participants have come this far picking flowers and looking pretty."

Megumi grinned in delight, taking her boot off of the railing and sitting back down to continue watching. There was a noticeable dent in the metal but she could care less about that. Aizawa-sensei was completely wrecking those guys with his commentaries and she was living for it.

Uraraka had the opportunity to wow the crowd with one final move, before she collapsed due to her weight limit. The blonde boy's explosion had sent the rubble flying, the shockwave reaching even the audience. Bakugou honestly looked the most shocked out of everyone. She was pretty sure he was incredibly unsatisfied with how the fight had turned out, considering he didn't get to full on brawl with his opponent. Megumi definitely wanted to see a rematch in the future. Midnight came up to check on the brunette. "Uraraka is unable to move. Bakugou advances to the next round!"

Well, that was one of most exciting matches yet. She saw Midoriya make his way downstairs for Uraraka.

Only six more matches to go. She shivered, knowing her turn was coming soon.

1-B's Shiozaki beat Aoyama without really having to fight, her vines gently snaking around him and depositing him past the boundary. Poor guy's stomachache had him curling on the floor. Megumi could only scratch her own head at that. She could relate. Maybe she should ask him for tips on how to deal with it...

Next up was Iida against the support class member Hatsume. Megumi had never seen Iida look as irritated as when he saw Hatsume advertising her babies to the audience without paying attention to actually fighting him. He eventually did win... but at what cost? By the end of it, it was Hatsume looking like the victor instead of Iida who was shaking his head in disappointed disapproval. She'd just used him as a walking advertisement after all. It was pretty funny to watch.

Ashido beat Kaminari, no questions asked. He couldn't conduct his electricity with her acid shielding her, and it was all over for him once he went over his voltage limit. Ashido was hopping and sliding around like she wasn't fighting at all, resembling a dancer. Megumi took note of the way she had expertly avoided his electricity. She looked like she was having fun... once Ashido came back onto the stands after her fight, they exchanged a low high-five before settling back onto their seats.

In the middle of Yaoyorozu's fight against Tokoyami, a finger tapped her on the shoulder. Uraraka smiled at her sheepishly. "Hey."

Megumi looked at her, puzzled. "Hey? What's up."

"I heard what you were shouting and... well, I guess I just wanted to tell you that I appreciated that." She rubbed her elbows shyly. Megumi could see that the brunette was still wary of her. It was commendable of her to go out of her way to still speak with her despite obviously feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"It's fine. Everyone was thinking the same thing, trust me. I don't know what made them think booing would be a good idea, but both of you were giving it your best. Aizawa-sensei had the situation under his control." Megumi assured. Brown eyes studied her curiously, as if trying to figure out whether there was any ounce of sarcasm in her voice or not. Bakugou observed their interaction, silently rolling his eyes.

"Tokoyami advances to the quarter-finals!"

Megumi took deep breaths, slowly rising up to stand. Midoriya and Shinsou were next- and after that... oh boy. She inhaled and exhaled, her chains itching just beneath her skin like they always did when she was psyching herself up for action. She tried to banish all thoughts of Todoroki and her own filthy family from her mind, concentrating on Nejire-senpai's unwavering gaze as she had simply just told her to... to have fun. What fun could she possibly derive from getting beat up by Todoroki? She still wasn't sure how she was supposed to implement fun into the equations running inside her head, but surely there was a way?

She froze in place as if she had forgotten something, turning back to Uraraka who had taken a seat next to her. "Speaking of appreciation... I'm going to be giving it my all against Todoroki." A wolfish smile crossed her lips. Uraraka swallowed nervously. (Had Airashi always had such sharp teeth?) "I hope you can cheer me on."

With that, she walked off downstairs to settle into one of the waiting rooms. Each waiting room had a small screen where she could watch what was going on in the arena. From what she could see, Midoriya was completely under Shinsou's mindcontrol. He was steadily getting closer to crossing the boundary line. That could only mean one thing... their match would be over soon. Megumi paced around, keeping her breathing steady. _'Calm. Breaths, in and out. No headache, no nosebleeds, no nothing- you're prepared. You can do this.'_

Midoriya flipped Shinsou onto his back. Midnight's whistle went off, signaling the outcome of the fight.

"Prepare yourselves for the last match of the first round competitions! Hoho, what interesting matchups indeed!"

Megumi grimaced, suppressing the trembling of her hands and exiting the waiting room. She had enough time to keep calm and sort through her thoughts, and yet she still felt wobbly on her feet. This challenge was different- everybody would be watching, analyzing her every move. She opened her palms, inspecting the crescent shaped markings as a result of digging her nails into the flesh. Her quirk cooed and coerced her, as if telling her it would be alright. They told her she should keep going. They told her to keep walking, _and don't look back._

Her feet carried her outside toward the stadium. The lights were blinding. She was strangely numb, the buzzing in her ears undoubtedly a sign of her quirk warming up for the occasion. It had a calming effect, knowing she wasn't alone.

Her body stilled as she came to the realization. _'That's right... I'm not alone.'_

Her quirk purred in agreement. She could feel the heat crawling up her calves and shoulders.

"Next up are these two! She's captivated many with her performance during the race- in spite of how she looks, she has shown us that she has more than a few clever tricks up her sleeve! Airashi Megumi from the heroics department!"

...'in spite of how she looks'? What the goddamn fu-

"Versus! You who stand at the top! He who is way too damn strong! From the same departments of heroics, Todoroki Shouto!"

Her eyes met Todoroki's.

He looked absolutely raging mad. _'Seems like Endeavor payed him a friendly visit.'_

Megumi scoffed, laughter bubbling up at the back of her throat. She was screwed, wasn't she? Her heels dug into the ground, taking a subtle stance.

She felt like she was facing off against a wild animal.

"START!"

* * *

**A/N:**

**Send help this arc is taking far longer than I anticipated**

**I just wanted it to flow naturally so here we have a chapter full of Megumi being angry. I can't believe I wrote this lmao. Well now you know what to look forward to next chapter. XD**

**I'm so happy that you guys didn't find Bakugou OOC, I'm still trying to adjust to writing him cause I feel like he's incredibly unpredictable and selective with the people he interacts with. For me, the race was definitely the most exciting part I wrote. I think this chapter has a lot of tension that's ready to explode, or at least that's what I went for. **

**Also to answer a question, yes the Original Megumi is gone. The current Megumi is a technically an entity of her own, since she's a mix between Colby and the Original's past memories- however, she's definitely more heavily influenced by Colby. Colby has adapted to the Original's memories and she often can't decide whether to take things personally or not, considering she wasn't too keen on getting yelled at by Aizawa when the Original did something reckless. As you can see a bit this chapter she's also conflicted whether she should be seeking justice for the Original when it's not her place to, but the emotions she feels from the Original's memories often has her acting irrationally.**

**Thank you for your lovely reviews, I like answering questions :)**


	10. Rivals

**That took a bit long- but I'm back! ****(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧**

* * *

_**\- Chapter 9 -**_

**Rivals**

* * *

They say blood is thicker than water.

(He couldn't quite put into words how much he sincerely _despised _that proverb.)

For as long as he could remember, there had never been an ounce of love or understanding between him and his father. That man cared for nothing but his own selfish interests. He was a villain dressed in hero garb, able to fool the public, but not those who had seen him for the monster he truly was. A monster who had terrorized and neglected his own family to the point of no return.

He had _ruined _them. There was nothing that could fix the damage he had inflicted.

Shouto and his siblings were all products of his greed for fame and prestige. They had all been victims subject to his abuse at some point, unable to escape his tyrannical hold.

His brothers and sister had gone through the same beatings and bruisings as he did. The only thing separating him from them was the fact that Endeavor's whole focus had shifted over to him once his quirk had manifested. He had tossed aside his siblings like they were nothing but disposable trash, forbidding Shouto from interacting with them, much less go outside.

Their mother had been the first to crack under the pressure. The scar over his left eye was evidence of her slow descent to madness. She had started to lash out violently to anything that reminded her of her poor excuse of a husband, resulting in her hospitalization.

From a young age, Shouto had learned that Endeavor's number one priority had never been his family, but his career as a hero. They were nothing but tools to him. He hated that man with a passion that burned hotter than the sun.

'_I will never forgive you.'_

Shouto had lost the very last person who had tried to discourage Endeavor from wreaking havoc on his child with harsh training and rough punishments. Shouto had to lay eyes on that disgusting piece of shit every day for the majority of his childhood and adolescence, his bitter contempt growing stronger and stronger. He had nothing to let out his loathing on- he knew he wouldn't be satisfied until he saw that villain bow down in shame and repentance.

As a result of his father's strict training and the homeschooling he had received, Shouto knew very little about socialization and the manners required for formal occasions. He tended to be quite blunt with his words, often driving away people he interacted with without knowing nor caring.

It was when he was around 12 years old when Todoroki Shouto met Airashi Megumi at a party hosted by sponsors of Endeavor's hero agency.

She had been small and scrawny despite her age, looking sickly in comparison to other children with how pale she was. The only reason his attention had been drawn to her was because she compensated for her size with a shrill voice that could make any grown man cry. At least a dozen eyes would glance over whenever she threw a tantrum, but it wasn't necessarily her bratty behavior that made him instantly dislike her.

Ever so often, her eyes would flit over toward her parents with longing adoration, as if expecting them to walk over and scold her for making a ruckus. But they never did. It disgusted him, how she could be so openly begging for their attention. How childish. They obviously couldn't give less of a shit. Why bother?

They had been the only two children standing alone and far off from their parents. It was unsurprising when her dull green eyes fixated on him, looking like she had finally found a new toy to play with. If Shouto had known that it'd be the beginning of a plethora of his annoyances, he would have escaped when he had the chance.

It was their first meeting that would shape the nature of their future interactions.

She would shamelessly cling onto him like he was a lifeline, undeterred by the scar who his father never failed to insult as ugly and unsightly. It was a blemish on his perfect tool- a blemish Todoroki wore proudly. He hoped whenever that man looked at him, he'd be reminded of how much of a callous dick he was. But Megumi's idea of what his scar represented seemed to completely differ, especially when he caught her looking at it as if it'd been carved by the gods themselves.

She harbored the ridiculously _shitty_ belief that the scar was actually some kind of twisted mark of love his parents had given him. She would never touch nor go anywhere near his scar, except eye it jealously like it was a trophy to be won. What kind of fucked up masochist thought that scars were a show of love? Did this crazy girl really think he should be happy over being his father's subject of obsession? She was insane. An attention starved lunatic who thought being hurt and punished was better off than being ignored.

Maybe that was why he couldn't get her to leave him alone. Even without being intentionally rude, Shouto came off crude and indifferent. He looked calm and reserved on the outside, but god forbid he opened his mouth in front of the house guests. On the contrary, Megumi was anything but dissuaded. She seemed to find him more interesting the more rebellious he got.

She would call him her 'prince', like he was some kind of knight in shining armor who'd sweep her off her feet atop his mighty steed. It might sound hilarious, but Shouto was absolutely miserable. Who did she think she was, projecting her dreams onto him? He wanted _nothing _to do with her. He wanted nothing from her except having her leave him alone. He had enough shit to deal with, he didn't need a neurotic admirer following him around. Just because he didn't ignore her like her parents did, didn't mean he wanted to be _friends._

In fact, if this was what having a friend felt like, then Shouto didn't think he wanted any.

This went on for months. Months of Shouto resigning himself to the fact that he would not be able to get her off his back.

He would admit that he did not have a way with words. Shouto had half a mind to explicitly tell her he wasn't interested, but didn't know how to say it in a way she would take seriously. With her deranged logic, she might think he was confessing his undying love for her or something. But he also wouldn't deny that something other than that held him back from backhanding her in the face with a rejection.

It was at another one of those banquets thrown by hero sponsors when Endeavor had found his son right next to none other than the heir of Airashi Pharmaceuticals. Shouto had witnessed conflicting emotions cross his face. He had walked over, towering over them with heat radiating off of him like a volcano ready to burst. The girl next to him had simply hugged herself, shaking with excitement and staring at the flame hero with a starstruck gaze. _"Airashi Megumi, sir!" _She had happily introduced when she'd been asked her name.

Endeavor hadn't bothered replying. He had simply looked in the direction of Megumi's parents with an expression revealing nothing as to what he might have been thinking.

Airashi Izumi had smirked with a raised brow, her feline grey eyes imploring. Endeavor never smiled back.

At that, the woman's smirk had widened into a cheshire grin, showing off her sharp canine teeth like a lounging cat. Shouto himself had gotten the creeps from the vulturous vibe she gave off. No one in that family seemed to be in their right mind.

Then again, who was he to say that?

Endeavor had pulled him aside that day, gruff and patronizing as always. _"I warn you now, Shouto. We need to upkeep our professional relationship with the Airashi. Don't ever think of jeopardizing our relations with our sponsors, are we clear? I suggest you find a way to rid all contacts with that girl. I don't care how you do it."_

You see, Shouto disliked Megumi. He found her troublesome and annoying and idiotically foolish. She was all kinds of crazy and bizarre. However, he detested his father more than he could ever hate a thick-witted girl like her. He found it funny that Endeavor thought Shouto would actually listen to anything he told him aside from training tips.

It was with great rebellious intentions that instead of cutting her off completely, he never gave in to her advances but didn't outright reject her either. He had her twisted around his finger, knowing very well that she wouldn't pass up any opportunities to win him over. If it was a prize she wanted, then he was perfectly okay dangling it in front of her nose: not close enough to touch, but close enough to have her continue chasing after it.

It constantly kept his father at the edge of his seat, wondering what in the hell Shouto was thinking. For some reason or another, Endeavor seemed to be greatly uneasy when it came to their business with Airashi Pharmaceuticals. Not that Shouto particularly cared- he just found it mildly amusing seeing restlessness radiate off of the flame hero whenever they were mentioned.

Unfortunately, having to endure Megumi's presence was an entirely different matter.

He wasn't proud of taking advantage of her loneliness. But at the same time, he found it hard to pity her when she was everything he could ever come to hate in a person. She was nothing but a puppet ruler, ignorant and blind to how little power she actually possessed. Hanging onto every word her mother told her, like a dog wagging its tail. Shouto felt physically sick just imagining himself doing the same with his father. Did she have no pride? No dignity? Why kiss the ground her parents walked on when they were nothing but greedy corporate executives?

Recalling Airashi Izumi's smile still made chills run down his spine.

She had scrutinized him with intelligent gray eyes, like he was a specimen to be observed under a microscope. It was discomforting. How could Megumi be related to that woman when they didn't resemble each other in the least? Not in appearance nor in conduct.

Megumi was painfully oblivious. Or was she just pretending to be a simpleton? He couldn't tell.

She liked to talk. He didn't. But that didn't stop her from ranting about damn near everything she could think of. They were random and off-topic ramblings that barely tied in with anything she'd been talking about in her previous sentences, like a badly cropped WhyTube video. In fact, she didn't even seem to care whether Shouto was actually listening or not. It was almost like she was speaking out loud to herself while he stood aside, trying not to focus on how heavy his eyelids felt. If only he could just tell her to stop.

(Well, maybe her incessant chatter was better than the crippling silence that awaited him in his own house. But only slightly.)

To put it simply, Shouto's plans for the future were fairly simple. He would become the number one hero without ever having to use his fire. The fire he had inherited from his insufferable, sorry excuse of a father. The very same man who had completely and utterly broken his mother's soul, crushing it mercilessly. What expression would he have if Shouto surpassed All Might with his mother's quirk alone? He wanted to see it, _taste _the victory. He'd make that man look like a clown in everyone's eyes. The pathetic, second place flame hero whose son could best him with his ice alone. Everything else was a small price to pay for retribution.

Even Megumi. She was a pain in the neck. A harmless pain, but a pain nonetheless. After realizing that the young heiress was stupidly stubborn with her persistence regarding Shouto, Endeavor had seemingly given up on telling his son to have her leave him alone. Now it was all about complying with her whims, making sure she didn't think of making ridiculous accusations about their family if Shouto's behavior caused her displeasure. He knew for a fact that she would certainly be vindictive enough to do that. Then again, he had gotten numb to her mindless rambles and it was fairly easy feigning interest when she seemed to pay more attention to herself talking than looking him in the eye while doing so.

A friend? A lover? Such useless things were far from what he needed. In the end, Megumi would be nothing but a passing stranger in the long, eventful journey that awaited him in his path of becoming a hero. Just like everyone else who thought they could get in his way.

Or at least, that's how it should have been.

All of a sudden, she had turned into someone he could barely recognize. Keeping up with coursework, having civil conversations with others, avoiding him like he was a disease- not that he'd been keeping track. It had just been so jarringly _different _than usual that he couldn't have missed it.

Eating alone and sitting by himself without anybody to pester him was what he thought he had wanted.

Alas, it felt incredibly… awkward.

He was annoyed. And he was irritated at the fact that he was annoyed. What gave her the impression that she could ignore him as she pleased? If someone had a right to ignore, then it would certainly be _him. _Did she have any idea how much boredom he had suffered through? How uncomfortable it had been having her cling to him? And now she had the audacity to act like _he _was the weird one nobody wanted to approach? Bullshit.

He had seen her train for the Sports Festival. She'd been hard and relentless with her training regime, pushing herself to her limits. He knew, because he had gone through the same process with Endeavors strict teachings.

(What did she think she could achieve with only 2 weeks of training? It was laughable.)

And yet, she proved him wrong again and again. The obstacle race, the cavalry battle, both competitions wherein he had paid her no mind whatsoever- and paid the price for it. He was internally seething. He had trained for _years _and this was the result? Midoriya besting him in the obstacle race, Megumi snatching the win right out of his hands during the cavalry battle, it was simply not something he would have imagined in his wildest dreams. When Yaoyorozu had suggested to recruit Megumi into their team, he had declined on the account that she would have been nothing but a hindrance. But the way things had turned out…- absurd.

He wondered. Had this been her plan all along? Using him as an excuse to join UA?

And if so, did he have the right to be angry when he hadn't been beside her with the best of intentions either?

His eyes hardened at the thought. _'No. That's not what I should be thinking about right now. What I need to do is win this Sports Festival," _A brief snarl crossed his face. _"and show that man what I'm capable of without needing him."_ His footsteps eerily echoed through the hallways as he exited his waiting room, making his way to the stadium.

Right in front of the entryway stood a huge silhouette, broad shouldered and swathed in flames.

Shouto grit his teeth. "….Out of my way."

Endeavor was unaffected by the harsh words. He leaned on the wall with his arms crossed, his own expression one of irritation. "Your behavior has been nothing but disgraceful, Shouto."

No. He refused to have this conversation here and now. He started walking faster, the pit in his stomach growing larger the closer he got to the flame hero.

"If you had used the power at your left side, you could have crushed both the obstacle race and the cavalry battle easily."

'_Stop. Shut the fuck up.' _Shouto felt a vein in his neck tick at having to listen to this garbage.

"Even that _girl _was able to best you. The one who has that silly infatuation for you." A derisive laugh. "Shameful. You could have easily intercepted her with your fire."

Shouto's jaw audibly clicked shut, his demeanor growing darker with every word coming at out of this bastard's mouth. How _dare _he suggest that Megumi had bested him in any way? She hadn't. Those instances wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been caught off guard. If he had known that she'd been hiding those tricks all along, then he-

"Your resistance is childish and tiresome. Stop fucking around and see to your duty to surpass All Might."

Would this son of a bitch ever _stop _talking?

"Do you understand, Shouto?! You're different from your siblings! You are my greatest Masterpiece!"

Shouto could feel the temperature drop drastically, his ice starting to form thin frost on the inside his gym clothes. The fuming fury he felt threatened to explode, an unbearable burn in the back of his head as his eyes went bloodshot with the effort he exerted to regulate his quirks. He could feel both his ice and fire destabilizing with the sheer animosity painting his vision red. He was holding himself back from lunging at the smug asshole observing him, his fists itching to get in a good hit.

Instead, he swallowed down the war cry building up in his throat. "Is that all that will ever spew out of your goddamn mouth? I will earn my victories using only mom's power. And I will _never, ever use your power_ in any battle."

With heavy steps, he continued his way outside. After this, he was going to be fighting Midoriya; the boy All Might seemed to have taken under his wing. _'I'm going to beat him. I'll show All Might what he needs to be wary of- what they all should be wary of.'_

* * *

Megumi knew she had no chance of winning.

But what kind of lazy opponent would she be if she didn't at least try putting up a fight?

If memory served her correct, Sero had been knocked out of commission the moment he had decided to strike first. Poor guy must have been scared shitless with that massive mountain of ice coming his way- hell, she sure wasn't feeling like hot shit right now either. Todoroki was a powder keg ready to burst, shadows obscuring his face and icy heat radiating off of him in waves. She felt like she was trapped in a cage with a hungry lion, ready to mince her into pieces if she so much as made one wrong move.

Her eyes narrowed at the hot and cold air blowing her way, as if he was trying to desperately regulate his body temperature. It seemed she wasn't the only one whose quirk became hard to control when emotions got in the way. His rage was palpable- she wondered if anyone else could feel it.

But her own ire seemed to wipe out any apprehension she might have felt having to fight a clearly frustrated Todoroki.

She might not have been the smartest, strongest or the fastest. But she sure had a bone to pick with him.

Disregarding the chains slithering underneath her sweater and around her ankles, a pair of medium sized chains shot out of her palms and towards Todoroki. The crowd 'ooh'd and 'aah'd as they wrapped around him, his boots skidding on the ground as he tried to stop the momentum from swinging him past the boundary.

"Ah! A surprise attack aiming for a quick ring-out! Not bad- most likely the best choice she could have made! Give it your all, Airashi!"

Man. She hated Present Mic narrating like he was praising a two year old for having learned how to walk. Anybody who thought she'd be able to defeat him with just that would be a total idiot. She got that he was trying to hype up the crowd, but she didn't want their pity once Todoroki decided to punt her through a wall. How embarrassed must Sero have been, having the entire stadium collectively tell him not to mind how he'd lost? Of course he was gonna mind! Todoroki had turned him into frozen dinner-to-go! What would their reactions be once he did the same to her? Tell number two pro hero Endeavor's son not to 'toy with the poor girl'? Hilarious.

She had known from the moment she set foot onto the arena that she couldn't hope to avoid Todoroki's ice blast of pure rage and fury.

Sero and her were similar in many ways. Lean and bigger on speed than strength. Their quirks were flexible, Spiderman-esque, granting them better focus and flexibility than most other quirks.

However, as similar as they were, they weren't the same.

And she intended to fully exploit that.

The temperature in the air spiked once again. Freezing. She could feel the goosebumps crawling up her arms, her quirk showing its uneasiness by glowing brighter. She got a nice view of Todoroki lifting up his head, eyes looking right through her and into the crowd where Endeavor sat. His lips parted. She could barely make out what he was saying.

* * *

"_**Sorry."**_

He let it go. The anger that had built up in him like a dam ready to burst at the slightest provocation. And in this case, that provocation had come in the form of chains roughly squeezing around him, ready to swing him out without hesitation.

A humongous pile of ice encased half of the arena in less than a second.

He could see his breaths create little clouds of vapor, the chains around him crumbling to the ground. He flexed his hands, taking in the way his feet now touched the ground again.

The silence of the entire stadium started to set in. His heart dropped.

* * *

Their eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, people sitting in the front rows leaning back from the ice right in front of their noses. The massive construct obscured their view of the arena, and students of 1-A could only guess what had happened.

"Holy shit…"

Kaminari looked like he'd seen his whole life flash before his eyes. "There's no way she dodged that."

Kirishima was both confused and freaked out as he leaned in to get a better view. "Is she _dead? _Did he _kill her? _Oh my god."

Bakugou kicked the seat in front of him in annoyance. "Shut up! You're all noisy as hell."

* * *

It was an indisputable fact that neither her quirk nor combat experience could hold a candle to Todoroki.

Her chains did not possess the sheer power Todoroki's quirk was capable of. They were useful for defensive and evasive maneuvers, but she'd have to rely on actual hand-to-hand combat to do any actual damage. Even the ends of her chains were blunt, unsuitable for offensive attacks. Two weeks hadn't been nearly enough to explore the full potential of her quirk. Not to mention she'd rather not try anything dangerous without a seasoned professional supervising her training. That's why this world had rules and regulations, all centered around quirks and keeping people from being hurt by them.

Because that's what quirks were: weapons. Superpowers that could kill just as easily as they could save. It didn't matter if your quirk was growing rose petals out of your ears or whatever- it'd all be over once you learned how to jam thorny rose branches through people's brains.

Even 'harmless' quirks could become dangerous once you figured out their core function.

And she had every intention of bringing out the lethality in her strangely sentient chains.

Their warmth underneath her clothes put her at ease. If it was a fight Todoroki 'Let it go' Shouto wanted, then she would gladly comply. It would be so much _fun._

* * *

A massive _CRACK _echoed throughout the stadium.

The audience watched with bated breaths.

Chips of ice fell off of Megumi's arms, chains coiling around them. She brought up her hands to rip off the ice confining her neck and shoulders, simultaneously kicking one leg out of where it had been stuck. Ice steadily melted off where the chains touched them, frothing and dripping onto the ground in a sizzle before vaporizing into the air. Shouto took several steps back in alarm, his outstretched arm retreating once the situation dawned on him.

Indeed, her quirk differed from Sero's.

Sero's quirk was simple in a way she envied. He could shoot tape out of his arms. He could swing himself around with his tape and capture his opponents with it, similar to Aizawa-Sensei's quirk-suppressing bandages. His quirk didn't require him to expend some sort of weird telekinetic energy in order to use it- the polar opposite of how her quirk worked. He didn't need to constantly have some kind of contact with the tape he created for them to continue existing. Once his tape materialized, they didn't disappear like her chains did. In many ways, his quirk was more durable and reliable than hers.

However, like with many quirks that were considered similar in nature, there were things her chains could do that Sero's tape just couldn't.

Megumi had read articles upon articles, essays on the formation and manifestation of quirks and the methodologies needed to categorize them all. She had done so in a desperate attempt to figure out what to do with her own quirk- to get to _know _her quirk. The chains could not speak nor hear her, reacting purely out of instinct based on her thoughts and emotions. They gave off a similar vibe as Tokoyami's Dark Shadow, wild unless she learned how to domesticate them properly. Evidently, she had an emitter type quirk. A strange hybrid of a quirk, really. It was weirdly specific how she could only form chains and no other constructs, considering the direct source of her quirk.

She was no expert by any means, but she had observed the way her chains had slid through Todoroki's ice like butter during the obstacle race. Monoma had been completely overwhelmed by her quirk, not just because they were sentient, but also because he didn't know how to _use _them. Nobody else but her understood what made her quirk _hers. _The Original had been the only one able to control these chains, but had never tried using it for anything but capture and evasion. Why had she limited herself to only those when there were so many possibilities?

Sero could dispense tape, Kaminari could generate electricity and Todoroki could manifest both ice and fire.

But Megumi couldn't create iron or anything chains would normally be made out of. The chains winding around her limbs and climbing up the hulking ice tower Todoroki had created were made of nothing less than pure telekinetic energy. Or at least that's what she believed it to be- telekinetic energy. That's why it made her feel faint when using her quirk: there was a limit she couldn't cross when using that energy if she didn't want bad things to happen.

Ice could freeze chains. But not _telekinetic _chains.

And there was no rule stating she couldn't use her opponents quirk to her advantage.

The sound of ice cracking and splintering filled in the stunned silence. Megumi shook the last of the chilly remnants off of herself, teal irises glowering at Shouto in a way he had never seen before. "Tell me, Todoroki. Was it _fun _playing around with…" _'The Original?' _The corners of her lips curved downwards. "…my feelings?"

In that moment, Shouto suddenly came to the realization that the girl standing before him hadn't been calling him by his first name for several weeks.

"…What?" Frost collected at the bottom of his feet, ready to burst forth on command.

Now it was her who looked splitting livid. "I'm not sure _what _you don't understand about what I just said, but I'll ask again. Was it _fun _toying with me?" The ice creaked and groaned, vapor rising from where the chains curled around the protruding ridge like a hungry snake. "Was it fun having me chase you around like some mindless bimbo? Come on, tell me!"

The volume of her voice rose up with every passing second. "I'm so fucking sick of having to excuse your actions in my own mind. Did you think it was funny? When I was making a fool of myself all along? When all of you were just _humoring me?_" She snarled. "Speak, Todoroki! Why so silent? Is it cuz your Daddy is watching?"

It was his turn to snarl, nails digging into his palms. First Endeavor- now this? "What do you know about me? Some brainless idiot like you who ends up a nuisance wherever she goes- what do you think you know about me? What _right _do you have? _You_ approached _me_! You have no right to insult me."

"Now we're talking huh?" Her chains coiled around the rocks of ice that were breaking off of Todoroki's creation. She took a heated step forward, gesturing wildly. "It's not about who approached who first! This is about _you _stringing me along for _years _and not having the decency to be honest with me even once. What were you _thinking_-!"

She yelped, dodging an icicle sent her way. It crashed into the ice behind her. She could see the frost rapidly forming on the ground. Shouto glared just as intensely as she did, pulling his arm back and ready for another assault. "What was I thinking? You tell me! I only went along with your petty delusions! You don't know _anything!_"

"Oh so you're saying you couldn't have gotten rid of me even if you tried? Are you saying rejecting me wasn't an option? Do you have any idea how that makes no sense whatsoever?! You would go as far as to refuse your _own quirk-" _She slapped away another batch of icicles with her chains. "-but making the little princess mad is a big no-no? I don't understand. Help me understand! What did you _want _from me?!"

Shouto scowled, taking a step forward and gesturing just as wildly. "That's not what I- fuck. What makes you think I had a choice? And why do you suddenly care now? This isn't the time or place to be discussing this!"

Time? Place? Was she supposed to give a flying fuck about those? Now she was truly pissed. She straightened her back, chains vibrating energetically. She took a deep breath, raising one of her arms with her hand splayed upwards. Shouto startled at the sudden shift in atmosphere. "I think you're wrong Todoroki. We have all the time in the world to _talk _things out-" She gave him a canine smile, all teeth and no warmth behind the gesture. "Right here and right now."

With that said, she closed her hand into a fist. Shouto's eyes widened when an avalanche of ice came tumbling his way, chains hurling unstable blocks of ice as if skipping stones on water. Megumi was at the very center of it all, having swung herself up on the ice to avoid getting caught up in it.

She was going to get her point across no matter what it took. If he thought she was going to make it easy for him, he'd be the delusional one.

Even with the limited time she had regarding the usage of her quirk, she'd give the audience a good fucking show.

Crouching down low, Shouto took refuge behind the wall of ice he created. Wind and frost whipped past him, leaving chips and dents on his ice wall. He shouldn't have had given Megumi any ammunition in the first place. He would have to make sure he didn't give her any more openings to use his quirk against him. If he managed to get close enough, he could have a chance to throw her out of bounds. Neither of their quirks were close-range, but Shouto would have an easier time wrangling her out with hand-to-hand combat.

Before the avalanche could fully stop, Shouto jumped over his wall, hoping to catch Megumi off-guard with a body drop. He avoided the projectile ice easily, his vision still obscured by the cloud of dust and frost- however, when they cleared, the place he thought Megumi had been standing on was empty. Alarmed, Shouto watched as Megumi swung herself over his head, kicking through the ice wall he had left behind in his wake. The chains she had used to cause the avalanche crumbled to dust.

"Let's play a game. You try to catch me and I avoid you!" He felt his eye twitch. Had she always been so… smirky? "You don't like it? Too bad. I guess you did inherit your sense of humor from him." She skidded to the left and to the right in quick succession when he sent ledges of ice all the way across the arena towards her. Megumi clicked her tongue. "See? Got his temper too."

"Shut up."

She shrugged, a sneer forming on her face. "I don't know. You were able to endure my 'mindless chatter' for so long, what's the problem now?"

He was sick of her passive aggressive talk. "Someone like you wouldn't understand what I had to go through." He launched himself forward, spikes of ice flying up from the ground. Megumi dodged and weaved and vaulted over them. Was he intentionally trying to turn her into frozen shish kebab? She was trying to limit having to use her chains, but it was difficult to do so when Shouto was relentless with his attacks.

"What you had to go through-?" She smashed her knees through the ice that formed in front of her, flipping back onto her feet when she determined that there was nothing obstructing the space she was going to land on. "What about what I had to go through? Did you feel the same humiliation I did when people looked at me like I was a charity case? Actually, fuck it. If you think there's nobody out there who's got it worse than you and I, then you should reevaluate your life choices!"

He growled as she swung away again, using his ice scattered around the arena to avoid his assaults. She'd either attach her chains to them to swing away, or use them as shields to hide behind. He'd known she was slippery from his experiences in the obstacle race, but hadn't expected her to be just as slick in a 1v1 setting. Moreover, he was having a difficult time coming up with a tactic when all he could think of was coming up with ways to respond to her infuriating taunts- if she was intentionally riling him up, then it sure as hell worked. And he couldn't afford blasting ice in random directions forever if he didn't want frostbite forming on his right side.

"Silent again? Don't tell me you're tired already! Why, after all that special training you've gone through-"Megumi gasped as a huge ice wall formed smack in front of her. She ran right into it, stumbling back as more ice came hurtling her way. _'Shit, ugh'. _ Shaking off the stupor that had momentarily overcome her, she kicked and elbowed at the ice until she was once again in a position where she could see her opponent. Sweat ran down her temple and neck, damp hair feeling like lead against her back. He'd gotten her good.

His eyes flashed dangerously. "If you're incapable of shutting your mouth, I guess I'll have to do it for you."

She didn't like that tone. At all.

For the next five minutes, it was a race between her and Shouto's ice. Wherever she ran, walls of ice followed her like hounding dogs, hoping to catch her or make her run past the boundary while she tried to evade them. She flipped and cartwheeled all over the place, perilous thoughts invading her mind if he somehow managed to impale her after all.

One of her feet slipped. Megumi crashed face-first downwards, ice cracking and crumbling as dust arose from the ground. He took the opportunity to pin her against the floor with his ice, a gap of 50 meters present between the two of them.

Shouto himself looked out of breath, only looking slightly winded. She coughed, weakly attempting to get some feeling back into her arms from where they were pinned. He regarded her blankly. Then, his lips twitched upwards in a self-satisfied manner. "I caught you after all." He took a few steps forwards. "You should abstain from provoking people if this is how you'll end up!"

She coughed again, and for whatever reason he had thought she would've given up already. Instead, she smiled at him hugely and wildly- and flipped him off with her arms still immobilized.

"And you're too fucking cocky for your own good!"

Shouto felt the ground disappear from beneath his feet before he could come to the realization that he had indeed pinned down Megumi's arms: and had also apparently forgotten to incapacitate her legs in the heat of the moment. A particularly thick chain wrapped around his ankle, its warmth feeling searing hot against his right side.

And before he could process what had just happened, the ice crumbled from around Megumi's arms as she wrapped her hands around the chain originating from her right leg. It all happened in a split second. She used the chain to pull herself up, sweeping Shouto off of his feet simultaneously. And before he could fall on the ground onto his back, she skidded her left leg backward as she _swung _the chain like a baseball player pitching their bat for a home run.

Shouto flew through the air, smashing right through the ice walls he had created one by one as the people in the stands cringed back at the sight.

Present Mic's voice was heard once Shouto crashed into the last one with an audible crack. "Ouch — That's gotta hurt!"

* * *

They watched one of the figures down below got back on his feet, shaking himself off aggressively as he bent over and spat a glob of blood to the side.

"… You mean to tell me his spine didn't shatter on impact?"

"I don't know man, this is starting to get way too intense."

* * *

Shouto and Megumi faced each other, both panting and looking worse for wear.

Blood dripped down Shouto's mouth. He had bitten the inside of his cheek while falling. Megumi's body shook with the energy she had exerted into that attack. However, the splitting headache was worth it. That had been satisfying in a way nothing else could ever be.

They circled each other slowly, like two lions preparing for the right time to strike, eyes locked on their targets.

Megumi chuckled, wincing when her noise stung at having moved her face. She hoped it wasn't broken. "I would've liked to say that makes us even, but I still want to punch you in the face."

He scoffed, spitting out another drop of bloody saliva. "I didn't know your chains could grow that long. I won't let you pull that off again."

It was mostly silent as they sized each other up, strategizing their next move. Megumi frowned, reminded of when her chains had come in contact with the boy in front of her. It had been an incredibly strange feeling- almost as if one out of the two entities in Shouto's body was struggling to break free, repressed and neglected for ages. She gulped, nervously wondering whether her quirk had picked up on Shouto's rejection of his left side in its own weird way.

Could quirks… communicate with other quirks?

That thought flew right out of her mind when Shouto spoke up again. His eyes narrowed, frost once again building up in the palm of his hand. "I don't know what your problem is or what you want me to say. Frankly, I couldn't even care less. You're wasting your time- you know you're not going to win. Let's get this over with quick."

She rolled her eyes, 100% done with all pretense of niceness. "You know, Todoroki, you're not that bad of a person." Her eyes glowed teal once again, gripping the chain in her hands tightly. She couldn't afford letting this one disappear. She was running low on energy- it would probably take one more usage of her quirk to bring her to her knees. "But nobody likes stuck-up assholes whose overconfidence can only insult others. If you think you're better than the rest of us, _you're_ gonna look like the idiot."

And it was true. He had underestimated Midoriya in the original series. In turn, Midoriya had given him an existential crisis that would eventually allow Bakugou to defeat him.

However, by the look on his face right now, her words seem to enter one ear and exit through the other. There was no reasoning with him and she was no Midoriya. Shouto raised a brow. "I don't have to be told that by you of all people. I hope you realize that you're the last person who should be giving people inspirational speeches."

Another scowl twisted her features, her chains stiffening in response to her ire. "If that's what you think, how about an inspirational kick in the ass?"

Ice crawled up the stadium's walls, people eyeing it nervously when it didn't stop spreading after reaching the railings. The long chain now partially curled around Megumi's arm loosened its hold on her, ready to strike in the blink of an eye. The tension was unbearable as the two continued circling each other, their expressions darkening by the second.

Their eyes met. An understanding passed between them, possibly the first ever: the understanding that they were both ready to fight tooth and nail against each other, and not necessarily because of the Sports Festival.

That's when the holy mess broke loose.

It was the point of no return. It was what people would remember as one of the most chaotic matches of the First-Year Stage's fighting tournament- despite it only being an elimination round.

* * *

Gigantic pikes and obstructions of ice rose up, only to be demolished seconds later by chains whipping out to slice them in two. They crumbled just as quickly as they were created, Todoroki not wasting any time in replacing them as soon as they fell. Like a war zone, dust and debris littered the space they were fighting in.

In short, the arena was getting obliterated. Undoubtedly, Cementoss would have a lot of fixing to do after their fight.

They skirted around each other whenever they got too close, quirks clashing spectacularly as Todoroki's ice gave away underneath Airashi's chain link. However, it was still Airashi who sported the most cuts and bruises, courtesy of Todoroki's long range attacks and the fact that her quirk couldn't give her the best defense when she only had one particularly long chain to work with. She made the most out of it- and so did he, as he aimed to tire her out and drive her past the boundary, knowing that otherwise she would just break free again. The frostbite was already starting to set in, put he could barely feel the sting when he was too focused on slapping his infuriating opponent out of the ring.

Whatever he tried, she countered by flipping and cartwheeling out of the way. It was like trying to catch an eel. She made up for her lack of offense with an evasive pattern that was borderline impossible to figure out.

The longer the fight dragged on, the more vicious it grew.

Feints turned into uncoordinated punches, and kicks meant to trip up the opponent became full blown roundhouse kicks with the intent to break bones. They were both visibly tiring out. It was a miracle that Airashi had been able to keep up with Todoroki for so long at all.

And when the both of them flew away from each other with the force of Airashi's chains rebounding off of his ice, that's when it really devolved into something brutal.

Abandoning their quirks, they charged forward with only their fists and fury.

Todoroki blocked a turning kick with his forearms, grabbing Airashi by the leg and throwing her to the side. She twisted her body mid-air, flipping back onto her feet and leaping at him without hesitation. It looked like a strange dance between the two of them, their assaults fast and furious and difficult to follow due to the speed they carried out their blows with.

Every punch she landed to his cheek he'd repay with a kick in the gut. For every pull of her hair, she'd respond with stomp on his foot and twist of his arm.

Class 1-A watched the bloody battlefield with their jaws dropped, just as Airashi wrapped her arms around Todoroki's middle from behind and straight up batista bombed him. The crowd, on the other hand, was going wild with claps and cheers.

He, in turn, wrestled her into a chokehold. She escaped by sweeping his legs out from under him, tumbling to the ground together before rolling to the side and onto her feet to deliver a nasty elbow strike from above. He barely avoided it, clutching the back of her shirt and throwing her past his shoulder.

"...Holy shit. They're really going at it."

"What an intense lovers' quarrel."

Someone sputtered, almost choking on their own spit. "Y-you call that a lovers' quarrel?! They're beating the absolute crap out of each other!"

"Dude, it's like mortal combat out there."

"I... didn't think she'd be _that _mad over the shoulder bump..."

Bakugou tuned out their voices, unusually contemplative as he continued observing the match.

* * *

_"Ugh!"_

Simultaneously, she nailed him with an uppercut and he landed a hit right to the side of her face. Both of them stumbled back, sweaty, disheveled and out of breath.

Shouto's next move caught her off-guard, unable to react in time.

He seemed to gain a burst of adrenaline as he grabbed her by the collar, flinging her several meters into the distance with a streak of ice following her crash. Just as she was about to peel herself off the pile of ice and debris, sheets of ice collapsed onto her.

All was silent for a while. Shouto could only hear his own heavy breathing echo in the clearing. The audience's cheers started toning down, as if anticipating the final outcome. There was no movement coming from where Megumi had landed.

* * *

"She's done for."

"To be honest, I didn't think she'd do so well against him."

"That was insane! I would've just given up, y'know?"

They heard the ash blonde sitting far off from them snort amusedly. Kirishima's brow scrunched up as he regarded him quizzically. "Uh, bro? What's up."

Bakugou scowled, folding his arms and turning his head away. "Nothin, mind your own biz."

* * *

Midnight's heels clacked on the ground, commanding attention. "Airashi. Are you able to move?"

It was silent.

For one second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

Before the judgement could be made, Megumi shakily pulled herself up from the rubble. She was visibly unsteady, swaying slightly as she attempted to right herself.

And the most jarring of all was the sight of her loose hair, chopped off right above her shoulders. Strands of blonde hair stuck to the ice Shouto had affronted her with- it had cut right through.

He straightened up slightly, holding his right arm gingerly. Shouto felt an indescribable feeling of weariness and defeat overpower him. "There's no point continuing. You've lost, plain and simple."

Turning around without waiting for an answer, he started walking towards the edge of the arena fully confident that she would be collapsing any minute now.

A coughing fit wracked her body- a coughing fit that slowly but surely evolved into fits of giggles. Shouto's muscles tensed, sensing something wasn't right.

"I told you not to underestimate me."

He froze in place. However, not voluntarily. He grimaced when he realized what she had done, disbelief setting in.

He couldn't move.

Several chains as thin as threads clung onto his body, the other ends attached to Megumi like two puppets linked together. Except only one person was the puppet.

Megumi tested her chains, stretching out her left arm. Shouto did the same. She took a step forward- and he did the same.

One step closer to the edge.

"You know, you really shouldn't have turned around Todoroki... unless you were trying to make it easier for me."

He should've known that she was inconspicuously attaching webs of chains to him while they had been wrestling minutes prior. Like a spider weaving its trap. He bit his lip, drawing blood.

After all those grandiose claims of winning without having to use his left side- after how confidently he had challenged Midoriya, the boy who could very well be All Might's protégé and secret love child- after all of that, was this how it was going to end for him? Thanks to his own foolishness and stupidity?

He struggled to break free from the hold her threadlike chains had on him, but it was as if they had penetrated right through his flesh and merged with his very bones. He couldn't _move. _

* * *

Megumi knew that with every step she took, she walked closer towards victory.

However, she also knew that with every passing second, she was coming closer to fainting on the spot.

Todoroki probably couldn't see due to his back being turned, not to mention he was too busy struggling to break free. Blood had started gushing out of her nose as soon as she activated her quirk for most likely the final time today, and holy moly was it bleeding like a goddamn water fountain. Was it physically possible to survive losing so much blood? Was this going to be a normal occurrence? Fuck, she hated it.

She hadn't thought she'd be able to pull this off- but here she was with him at her mercy. It was surreal.

In all honesty, Megumi was satisfied enough knowing the two of them now had matching black eyes blooming on their faces. It was a beautiful reminder that she had punched him in that pretty face of his as revenge for having led on the Original for years. But seeing him struggle so desperately right now, it just... didn't give her satisfaction at all.

She had liked it best when they'd both been fighting on equal grounds, with no energy left to use their quirks. He'd truly looked like a boy his age right then, determined to win and prove his own worth. Not like the unfeeling, asshole Zuko lookalike she had pegged him for.

Her vision blurred and blank static started creeping into her hearing. She closed her eyes and stopped walking, seizing all movement.

Megumi had achieved what she had set out to do. What more was there to do- humiliate him by defeating him during an elimination round?

Besides, she couldn't even if she wanted to. She could barely control the shaking in her arms and legs.

She had been prepared to lose the moment she set foot in the arena.

Her right arm lifted upward, similar to a student asking for their turn in class. Every cell in her body told her that she wouldn't regret doing this. God, she wanted to lay down and sleep for eternity. Two words were simple enough to mutter.

With an unwavering voice, she did the last thing anyone would expect of her right now.

"I give."

* * *

It was silent up in the stands.

Nobody really knew what to say.

Except Bakugou, apparently. _"What the fuck?"_

* * *

Her chains crumbled to dust immediately.

She fell onto her hands and knees, accepting the towel Midnight handed to her with a woozy nod of her head.

"Todoroki advances to the next round!"

Shouto hollowly stared after her as she pressed the towel to her bloody nose, getting up and leaving without so much as a glance or a word to him. The audience cheered for him, and yet he couldn't focus on their loud clapping and screaming in the least.

After all those provocations and taunts... she was just going to... withdraw?

...Why?

_'What just happened?'_

* * *

**A/N:**

**I am here! After two weeks. **

**Life's getting a bit hectic rn, though I'll try my best to keep updating regularly!**

**I've been writing this chapter on energy drinks and pure sleep deprivation, I hope there aren't too many mistakes. Actually found a few spelling mistakes in the last chapter, but I don't wanna give anyone an update scare while trying to edit them so I guess I'll have to live with those mistakes. XD**

**Ngl, I have no idea how to write fight scenes. I feel like it turned out way too long than it should have been- I don't think I've ever written such a long fight scene. Hopefully I can learn from this experience, because writer's block and action scenes do not go well together. I know some of you wanted her to win and I agree it could have been interesting- but I planned her to go all out from the very beginning and as you can see, she wouldn't be able to survive the next round when she's on the verge of passing out, haha.**

**An answer to the question whether Megumi's chains might gain any additional properties: ****Megumi definitely has a long way to go before she can master her quirk, but I'd like to think you can sort of see in this chapter how versatile her chains are and what they might be capable of in the future. With enough time and training, she'll hopefully be able to use it in a variety of ways. That was a really good question actually, thank you for asking!**

**Your kind reviews really got me through the writer's block. I didn't think people would like it so much that they would reread some chapters! And the praise you give means so much to me, thank you all.**

**On another note, I've been thinking of making a DeviantArt account to post some sketches I've made of her. I'm definitely not an artist, but it'll definitely help with visualizing how she looks! What do you think?**


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